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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2 + "French Literature" to "Frost, William" + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 12, 2011 [EBook #37736] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #dcdcdc; color: #696969; " summary="Transcriber's note"> +<tr> +<td style="width:25%; vertical-align:top"> +Transcriber’s note: +</td> +<td class="norm"> +A few typographical errors have been corrected. They +appear in the text <span class="correction" title="explanation will pop up">like this</span>, and the +explanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked +passage. Sections in Greek will yield a transliteration +when the pointer is moved over them, and words using diacritic characters in the +Latin Extended Additional block, which may not display in some fonts or browsers, will +display an unaccented version. <br /><br /> +<a name="artlinks">Links to other EB articles:</a> Links to articles residing in other EB volumes will +be made available when the respective volumes are introduced online. +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<h2>THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA</h2> + +<h2>A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION</h2> + +<h3>ELEVENTH EDITION</h3> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>VOLUME XI SLICE II<br /><br /> +French Literature to Frost, William</h3> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="padding-top: 3em; "> </div> + +<p class="center1" style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'verdana';">Articles in This Slice</p> +<table class="reg" style="width: 90%; font-size: 90%; border: gray 2px solid;" cellspacing="8" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar1">FRENCH LITERATURE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar48">FRIEDRICHSHAFEN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar2">FRENCH POLISH</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar49">FRIEDRICHSRUH</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar3">FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar50">FRIENDLY SOCIETIES</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar4">FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar51">FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar5">FRENCH WEST AFRICA</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar52">FRIES, ELIAS MAGNUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar6">FRENTANI</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar53">FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar7">FREPPEL, CHARLES ÉMILE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar54">FRIES, JOHN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar8">FRERE, SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar55">FRIESLAND</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar9">FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar56">FRIEZE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar10">FRÈRE, PIERRE ÉDOUARD</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar57">FRIGATE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar11">FRÈRE-ORBAN, HUBERT JOSEPH WALTHER</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar58">FRIGATE-BIRD</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar12">FRÉRET, NICOLAS</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar59">FRIGG</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar13">FRÉRON, ÉLIE CATHERINE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar60">FRIGIDARIUM</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar14">FRÉRON, LOUIS MARIE STANISLAS</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar61">FRIIS, JOHAN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar15">FRESCO</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar62">FRIMLEY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar16">FRESCOBALDI, GIROLAMO</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar63">FRIMONT, JOHANN MARIA PHILIPP</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar17">FRESENIUS, KARL REMIGIUS</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar64">FRISCHES HAFF</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar18">FRESHWATER</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar65">FRISCHLIN, PHILIPP NIKODEMUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar19">FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN JEAN</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar66">FRISI, PAOLO</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar20">FRESNILLO</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar67">FRISIAN ISLANDS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar21">FRESNO</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar68">FRISIANS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar22">FRESNOY, CHARLES ALPHONSE DU</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar69">FRITH, JOHN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar23">FRET</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar70">FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar24">FREUDENSTADT</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar71">FRITILLARY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar25">FREUND, WILHELM</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar72">FRITZLAR</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar26">FREWEN, ACCEPTED</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar73">FRIULI</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar27">FREY</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar74">FROBEN, JOANNES</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar28">FREYBURG</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar75">FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar29">FREYCINET, CHARLES LOUIS DE SAULCES DE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar76">FROCK</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar30">FREYCINET, LOUIS CLAUDE DESAULSES DE</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar77">FROEBEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar31">FREYIA</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar78">FROG</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar32">FREYTAG, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar79">FROG-BIT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar33">FREYTAG, GUSTAV</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar80">FROGMORE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar34">FRIAR</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar81">FRÖHLICH, ABRAHAM EMANUEL</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar35">FRIBOURG</a> (Swiss Canton)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar82">FROHSCHAMMER, JAKOB</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar36">FRIBOURG</a> (Swiss town)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar83">FROISSART, JEAN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar37">FRICTION</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar84">FROME</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar38">FRIDAY</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar85">FROMENTIN, EUGÈNE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar39">FRIEDBERG</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar86">FROMMEL, GASTON</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar40">FRIEDEL, CHARLES</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar87">FRONDE, THE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar41">FRIEDLAND</a> (town of Austria)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar88">FRONTENAC ET PALLUAU, LOUIS DE BUADE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar42">FRIEDLAND</a> (towns in Germany)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar89">FRONTINUS, SEXTUS JULIUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar43">FRIEDLAND</a> (town of Prussia)</td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar90">FRONTISPIECE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar44">FRIEDMANN, MEIR</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar91">FRONTO, MARCUS CORNELIUS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar45">FRIEDRICH, JOHANN</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar92">FROSINONE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar46">FRIEDRICHRODA</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar93">FROSSARD, CHARLES AUGUSTE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl"><a href="#ar47">FRIEDRICHSDORF</a></td> <td class="tcl"><a href="#ar94">FROST, WILLIAM EDWARD</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>110</span></p> +<p><span class="bold">FRENCH LITERATURE.<a name="ar1" id="ar1"></a></span> <i>Origins.</i>—The history of French +literature in the proper sense of the term can hardly be said to +extend farther back than the 11th century. The actual manuscripts +which we possess are seldom of older date than the century +subsequent to this. But there is no doubt that by the end at +least of the 11th century the French language, as a completely +organized medium of literary expression, was in full, varied and +constant use. For many centuries previous to this, literature +had been composed in France, or by natives of that country, +using the term France in its full modern acceptation; but until +the 9th century, if not later, the written language of France, so +far as we know, was Latin; and despite the practice of not a few +literary historians, it does not seem reasonable to notice Latin +writings in a history of French literature. Such a history +properly busies itself only with the monuments of French itself +from the time when the so-called Lingua Romana Rustica +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>111</span> +assumed a sufficiently independent form to deserve to be called +a new language. This time it is indeed impossible exactly to +determine, and the period at which literary compositions, as +distinguished from mere conversation, began to employ the new +tongue is entirely unknown. As early as the 7th century the +Lingua Romana, as distinguished from Latin and from Teutonic +dialects, is mentioned, and this Lingua Romana would be of +necessity used for purposes of clerical admonition, especially in +the country districts, though we need not suppose that such +addresses had a very literary character. On the other hand, +the mention, at early dates, of certain <i>cantilenae</i> or songs composed +in the vulgar language has served for basis to a superstructure +of much ingenious argument with regard to the highly +interesting problem of the origin of the <i>Chansons de Geste</i>, the +earliest and one of the greatest literary developments of northern +French. It is sufficient in this article, where speculation would +be out of place, to mention that only two such <i>cantilenae</i> actually +exist, and that neither is French. One of the 9th century, the +“Lay of Saucourt,” is in a Teutonic dialect; the other, the “Song +of St Faron,” is of the 7th century, but exists only in Latin +prose, the construction and style of which present traces of translation +<span class="sidenote">Early monuments.</span> +from a poetical and vernacular original. As far +as facts go, the most ancient monuments of the written +French language consist of a few documents of very +various character, ranging in date from the 9th to the +11th century. The oldest gives us the oaths interchanged at +Strassburg in 842 between Charles the Bald and Louis the German. +The next probably in date and the first in literary merit is a short +song celebrating the martyrdom of St Eulalia, which may be +as old as the end of the 9th century, and is certainly not younger +than the beginning of the 10th. Another, the <i>Life of St Leger</i>, in +240 octosyllabic lines, is dated by conjecture about 975. The +discussion indeed of these short and fragmentary pieces is of +more philological than literary interest, and belongs rather to +the head of French language. They are, however, evidence of +the progress which, continuing for at least four centuries, built up +a literary instrument out of the decomposed and reconstructed +Latin of the Roman conquerors, blended with a certain limited +amount of contributions from the Celtic and Iberian dialects of +the original inhabitants, the Teutonic speech of the Franks, and +the Oriental tongue of the Moors who pressed upwards from Spain. +But all these foreign elements bear a very small proportion to the +element of Latin; and as Latin furnished the greater part of the +vocabulary and the grammar, so did it also furnish the principal +models and helps to literary composition. The earliest French +versification is evidently inherited from that of the Latin hymns +of the church, and for a certain time Latin originals were followed +in the choice of literary forms. But by the 11th century it is +tolerably certain that dramatic attempts were already being +made in the vernacular, that lyric poetry was largely cultivated, +that laws, charters, and such-like documents were written, and +that commentators and translators busied themselves with religious +subjects and texts. The most important of the extant +documents, outside of the epics presently to be noticed, has of +<span class="sidenote">Epic poetry.</span> +late been held to be the <i>Life of Saint Alexis</i>, a poem +of 625 decasyllabic lines, arranged in five-line stanzas, +each of one assonance or vowel-rhyme, which may be +as early as 1050. But the most important development of the +11th century, and the one of which we are most certain, is that +of which we have evidence remaining in the famous <i>Chanson de +Roland</i>, discovered in a manuscript at Oxford and first published +in 1837. This poem represents the first and greatest development +of French literature, the chansons de geste (this form is now +preferred to that with the plural <i>gestes</i>). The origin of these +poems has been hotly debated, and it is only recently that the +importance which they really possess has been accorded to them,—a +fact the less remarkable in that, until about 1820, the epics +of ancient France were unknown, or known only through late +and disfigured prose versions. Whether they originated in the +north or the south is a question on which there have been more +than one or two revolutions of opinion, and will probably be +others still, but which need not be dealt with here. We possess +in round numbers a hundred of these chansons. Three only of +them are in Provençal. Two of these, <i>Ferabras</i> and <i>Betonnet +d’Hanstonne</i>, are obviously adaptations of French originals. +The third, <i>Girartz de Rossilho</i> (Gerard de Roussillon), is undoubtedly +Provençal, and is a work of great merit and originality, +but its dialect is strongly tinged with the characteristics of the +Langue d’Oïl, and its author seems to have been a native of the +debatable land between the two districts. To suppose under +these circumstances that the Provençal originals of the hundred +others have perished seems gratuitous. It is sufficient to say +that the chanson de geste, as it is now extant, is the almost +exclusive property of northern France. Nor is there much +authority for a supposition that the early French poets merely +versified with amplifications the stories of chroniclers. On the +contrary, chroniclers draw largely from the chansons, and the +question of priority between <i>Roland</i> and the pseudo-Turpin, +though a hard one to determine, seems to resolve itself in favour +of the former. At most we may suppose, with much probability, +that personal and family tradition gave a nucleus for at least +the earliest.</p> + +<p><i>Chansons de Geste.</i>—Early French narrative poetry was +divided by one of its own writers, Jean Bodel, under three heads—poems +relating to French history, poems relating to +ancient history, and poems of the Arthurian cycle +<span class="sidenote">Chansons de Geste.</span> +(<i>Matières de France, de Bretagne, et de Rome</i>). To the +first only is the term chansons de geste in strictness applicable. +The definition of it goes partly by form and partly by matter. +A chanson de geste must be written in verses either of ten or +twelve syllables, the former being the earlier. These verses have +a regular caesura, which, like the end of a line, carries with it +the licence of a mute <i>e</i>. The lines are arranged, not in couplets +or in stanzas of equal length, but in <i>laisses</i> or <i>tirades</i>, consisting +of any number of lines from half a dozen to some hundreds. +These are, in the earlier examples assonanced,—that is to say, +the vowel sound of the last syllables is identical, but the consonants +need not agree. Thus, for instance, the final words of a +tirade of <i>Amis et Amiles</i> (Il. 199-206) are <i>erbe</i>, <i>nouvelle</i>, <i>selles</i>, +<i>nouvelles</i>, <i>traversent</i>, <i>arrestent</i>, <i>guerre</i>, <i>cortége</i>. Sometimes the +tirade is completed by a shorter line, and the later chansons are +regularly rhymed. As to the subject, a chanson de geste must be +concerned with some event which is, or is supposed to be, +historical and French. The tendency of the trouvères was constantly +to affiliate their heroes on a particular <i>geste</i> or family. +The three chief <i>gestes</i> are those of Charlemagne himself, of Doon +de Mayence, and of Garin de Monglane; but there are not a +few chansons, notably those concerning the Lorrainers, and the +remarkable series sometimes called the <i>Chevalier au Cygne</i>, and +dealing with the crusades, which lie outside these groups. By +this joint definition of form and subject the chansons de geste +are separated from the romances of antiquity, from the romances +of the Round Table, which are written in octosyllabic couplets, +and from the <i>romans d’aventures</i> or later fictitious tales, some of +which, such as <i>Brun de la Montaigne</i>, are written in pure chanson +form.</p> + +<p>Not the least remarkable point about the chansons de geste +is their vast extent. Their number, according to the strictest +definition, exceeds 100, and the length of each chanson +varies from 1000 lines, or thereabouts, to 20,000 or +<span class="sidenote">Volume and changes of early epics.</span> +even 30,000. The entire mass, including, it may be +supposed, the various versions and extensions of each +chanson, is said to amount to between two and three million +lines; and when, under the second empire, the publication of the +whole Carolingian cycle was projected, it was estimated, taking +the earliest versions alone, at over 300,000. The successive +developments of the chansons de geste may be illustrated by the +fortunes of <i>Huon de Bordeaux</i>, one of the most lively, varied +and romantic of the older epics, and one which is interesting +from the use made of it by Shakespeare, Wieland and Weber. +In the oldest form now extant, though even this is probably not +the original, <i>Huon</i> consists of over 10,000 lines. A subsequent +version contains 4000 more; and lastly, in the 14th century, +a later poet has amplified the legend to the extent of 30,000 lines. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>112</span> +When this point had been reached, <i>Huon</i> began to be turned into +prose, was with many of his fellows published and republished +during the 15th and subsequent centuries, and retains, in the +form of a roughly printed chap-book, the favour of the country +districts of France to the present day. It is not, however, in the +later versions that the special characteristics of the chansons +de geste are to be looked for. Of those which we possess, one and +one only, the <i>Chanson de Roland</i>, belongs in its present form +to the 11th century. Their date of production extends, speaking +roughly, from the 11th to the 14th century, their palmy days were +the 11th and the 12th. After this latter period the Arthurian +romances, with more complex attractions, became their rivals, +and induced their authors to make great changes in their style +and subject. But for a time they reigned supreme, and no better +instance of their popularity can be given than the fact that +manuscripts of them exist, not merely in every French dialect, +but in many cases in a strange macaronic jargon of mingled +French and Italian. Two classes of persons were concerned in +them. There was the <i>trouvère</i> who composed them, and the +<i>jongleur</i> who carried them about in manuscript or in his memory +from castle to castle and sang them, intermixing frequent appeals +to his auditory for silence, declarations of the novelty and the +strict copyright character of the chanson, revilings of rival +minstrels, and frequently requests for money in plain words. +Not a few of the manuscripts which we now possess appear to +have been actually used by the jongleur. But the names of the +authors, the trouvères who actually composed them, are in very +few cases known, those of copyists, continuators, and mere +possessors of manuscripts having been often mistaken for them.</p> + +<p>The moral and poetical peculiarities of the older and more +authentic of these chansons are strongly marked, though perhaps +not quite so strongly as some of their encomiasts have contended, +and as may appear to a reader of the most famous of them, the +<i>Chanson de Roland</i>, alone. In that poem, indeed, war and +religion are the sole motives employed, and its motto might +be two lines from another of the finest chansons (<i>Aliscans</i>, +161-162):—</p> + +<table class="reg f90" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr"> +<p>“Dist à Bertran: ‘N’avons mais nul losir,</p> +<p class="i05">Tant ke vivons alons paiens ferir.’”</p> +</div> </td></tr></table> + +<p class="noind">In Roland there is no love-making whatever, and the hero’s +betrothed “la belle Aude” appears only in a casual gibe of her +brother Oliver, and in the incident of her sudden death at the +news of Roland’s fall. M. Léon Gautier and others have drawn +the conclusion that this stern and masculine character was a +feature of all the older chansons, and that imitation of the +Arthurian romance is the cause of its disappearance. This +seems rather a hasty inference. In <i>Amis et Amiles</i>, admittedly +a poem of old date, the parts of Bellicent and Lubias are +prominent, and the former is demonstrative enough. In <i>Aliscans</i> +the part of the Countess Guibourc is both prominent and heroic, +and is seconded by that of Queen Blancheflor and her daughter +Aelis. We might also mention Oriabel in <i>Jourdans de Blaivies</i> +and others. But it may be admitted that the sex which fights and +counsels plays the principal part, that love adventures are not +introduced at any great length, and that the lady usually spares +her knight the trouble and possible indignities of a long wooing. +The characters of a chanson of the older style are somewhat +uniform. There is the hero who is unjustly suspected of guilt or +sore beset by Saracens, the heroine who falls in love with him, +the traitor who accuses him or delays help, who is almost always +of the lineage of Ganelon, and whose ways form a very curious +study. There are friendly paladins and subordinate traitors; +there is Charlemagne (who bears throughout the marks of the +epic king common to Arthur and Agamemnon, but is not in the +earlier chanson the incapable and venal dotard which he becomes +in the later), and with Charlemagne generally the duke Naimes +of Bavaria, the one figure who is invariably wise, brave, loyal +and generous. In a few chansons there is to be added to these a +very interesting class of personages who, though of low birth or +condition, yet rescue the high-born knights from their enemies. +Such are Rainoart in <i>Aliscans</i>, Gautier in <i>Gaydon</i>, Robastre in +<i>Gaufrey</i>, Varocher in <i>Macaire</i>. These subjects, uniform rather +than monotonous, are handled with great uniformity if not +monotony of style. There are constant repetitions, and it sometimes +seems, and may sometimes be the case, that the text is a +mere cento of different and repeated versions. But the verse is +generally harmonious and often stately. The recurrent assonances +of the endless tirade soon impress the ear with a grateful +music, and occasionally, and far more frequently than might be +thought, passages of high poetry, such as the magnificent <i>Granz +doel por la mort de Rollant</i>, appear to diversify the course of the +story. The most remarkable of the chansons are <i>Roland</i>, +<i>Aliscans</i>, <i>Gerard de Roussillon</i>, <i>Amis et Amiles</i>, <i>Raoul de Cambrai</i>, +<i>Garin le Loherain</i> and its sequel <i>Les quatre Fils Aymon</i>, <i>Les Saisnes</i> +(recounting the war of Charlemagne with Witekind), and lastly, +<i>Le Chevalier au Cygne</i>, which is not a single poem but a series, +dealing with the earlier crusades. The most remarkable <i>group</i> is +that centring round William of Orange, the historical or half-historical +defender of the south of France against Mahommedan +invasion. Almost all the chansons of this group, from the long-known +<i>Aliscans</i> to the recently printed <i>Chançon de Willame</i>, +are distinguished by an unwonted <i>personality</i> of interest, as well +as by an intensified dose of the rugged and martial poetry which +pervades the whole class. It is noteworthy that one chanson +and one only, <i>Floovant</i>, deals with Merovingian times. But the +chronology, geography, and historic facts of nearly all are, it is +hardly necessary to say, mainly arbitrary.</p> + +<p><i>Arthurian Romances.</i>—The second class of early French epics +consists of the Arthurian cycle, the <i>Matière de Bretagne</i>, the +earliest known compositions of which are at least a century +junior to the earliest chanson de geste, but which soon succeeded +the chansons in popular favour, and obtained a vogue both wider +and far more enduring. It is not easy to conceive a greater +contrast in form, style, subject and sentiment than is presented +by the two classes. In both the religious sentiment is prominent, +but the religion of the chansons is of the simplest, not to say of the +most savage character. To pray to God and to kill his enemies +constitutes the whole duty of man. In the romances the mystical +element becomes on the contrary prominent, and furnishes, in +the Holy Grail, one of the most important features. In the Carlovingian +knight the courtesy and clemency which we have learnt +to associate with chivalry are almost entirely absent. The +<i>gentix ber</i> contradicts, jeers at, and execrates his sovereign and +his fellows with the utmost freedom. He thinks nothing of striking +his <i>cortoise moullier</i> so that the blood runs down her <i>cler vis</i>. +If a servant or even an equal offends him, he will throw the +offender into the fire, knock his brains out, or set his whiskers +ablaze. The Arthurian knight is far more of the modern model +in these respects. But his chief difference from his predecessor +is undoubtedly in his amorous devotion to his beloved, who, +if not morally superior to Bellicent, Floripas, Esclairmonde, and +the other Carlovingian heroines, is somewhat less forward. Even +in minute details the difference is strongly marked. The romances +are in octosyllabic couplets or in prose, and their language is +different from that of the chansons, and contains much fewer of +the usual epic repetitions and stock phrases. A voluminous controversy +has been held respecting the origin of these differences, +and of the story or stories which were destined to receive such +remarkable attention. Reference must be made to the article +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Arthurian Legend</a></span> for the history of this controversy and for +an account of its present state. This state, however, and all +subsequent states, are likely to be rather dependent upon opinion +than upon actual knowledge. From the point of view of the +general historian of literature it may not be improper here to give +a caution against the frequent use of the word “proven” in such +matters. Very little in regard to early literature, except the +literary value of the texts, is ever susceptible of <i>proof</i>; although +things may be made more or less <i>probable</i>. What we are at present +concerned with, however, is a body of verse and prose composed +in the latter part of the 12th century and later. The earliest +romances, the <i>Saint Graal</i>, the <i>Quête du Saint Graal</i>, <i>Joseph +d’Arimathie</i> and <i>Merlin</i> bear the names of Walter Map and +Robert de Borron. <i>Artus</i> and part at least of <i>Lancelot du Lac</i> +(the whole of which has been by turns attributed and denied to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>113</span> +Walter Map) appear to be due to unknown authors. <i>Tristan</i> +came later, and has a stronger mixture of Celtic tradition. At +the same time as Walter Map, or a little later, Chrétien (or +Chrestien) de Troyes threw the legends of the Round Table +into octosyllabic verse of a singularly spirited and picturesque +character. The chief poems attributed to him are the <i>Chevalier +au Lyon</i> (Sir Ewain of Wales), the <i>Chevalier à la Charette</i> (one +of the episodes of <i>Lancelot</i>), <i>Eric et Enide</i>, <i>Tristan</i> and <i>Percivale</i>. +These poems, independently of their merit, which is great, had +an extensive literary influence. They were translated by the +German minnesingers, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of +Strassburg, and others. With the romances already referred +to, which are mostly in prose, and which by recent authorities +have been put later than the verse tales which used to be postponed +to them, Chrétien’s poems complete the early forms of +the Arthurian story, and supply the matter of it as it is best +known to English readers in Malory’s book. Nor does that book, +though far later than the original forms, convey a very false +impression of the characteristics of the older romances. Indeed, +the Arthurian knight, his character and adventures, are so much +better known than the heroes of the Carlovingian chanson that +there is less need to dwell upon them. They had, however, as has +been already pointed out, great influence upon their rivals, and +their comparative fertility of invention, the much larger number +of their <i>dramatis personae</i>, and the greater variety of interests to +which they appealed, sufficiently explain their increased popularity. +The ordinary attractions of poetry are also more largely +present in them than in the chansons; there is more description, +more life, and less of the mere chronicle. They have been accused +of relaxing morality, and there is perhaps some truth in the +charge. But the change is after all one rather of manners than +of morals, and what is lost in simplicity is gained in refinement. +<i>Doon de Mayence</i> is a late chanson, and <i>Lancelot du Lac</i> is an early +romance. But the two beautiful scenes, in the former between +Doon and Nicolette, in the latter between Lancelot, Galahault, +Guinevere, and the Lady of Malehaut, may be compared as +instances of the attitude of the two classes of poets towards the +same subject.</p> + +<p><i>Romances of Antiquity.</i>—There is yet a third class of early +narrative poems, differing from the two former in subject, but +agreeing, sometimes with one sometimes with the other in form. +These are the classical romances—the <i>Matière de Rome</i>—which +are not much later than those of Charlemagne and Arthur. +The chief subjects with which their authors busied themselves +were the conquests of Alexander and the siege of Troy, though +other classical stories come in. The most remarkable of all is the +romance of <i>Alixandre</i> by Lambert the Short and Alexander of +Bernay. It has been said that the excellence of the twelve-syllabled +verse used in this romance was the origin of the term +alexandrine. The Trojan romances, on the other hand, are +chiefly in octosyllabic verse, and the principal poem which +treats of them is the <i>Roman de Troie</i> of Benoit de Sainte More. +Both this poem and <i>Alixandre</i> are attributed to the last quarter +of the 12th century. The authorities consulted for these poems +were, as may be supposed, none of the best. Dares Phrygius, +Dictys Cretensis, the pseudo-Callisthenes supplied most of them. +But the inexhaustible invention of the trouvères themselves was +the chief authority consulted. The adventures of Medea, the +wanderings of Alexander, the Trojan horse, the story of Thebes, +were quite sufficient to spur on to exertion the minds which had +been accustomed to spin a chanson of some 10,000 lines out of a +casual allusion in some preceding poem. It is needless to say +that anachronisms did not disturb them. From first to last the +writers of the chansons had not in the least troubled themselves +with attention to any such matters. Charlemagne himself had +his life and exploits accommodated to the need of every poet +who treats of him, and the same is the case with the heroes of +antiquity. Indeed, Alexander is made in many respects a prototype +of Charlemagne. He is regularly knighted, he has twelve +peers, he holds tournaments, he has relations with Arthur, and +comes in contact with fairies, he takes flights in the air, dives in +the sea and so forth. There is perhaps more avowed imagination +in these classical stories than in either of the other divisions of +French epic poetry. Some of their authors even confess to the +practice of fiction, while the trouvères of the chansons invariably +assert the historical character of their facts and personages, and +the authors of the Arthurian romances at least start from facts +vouched for, partly by national tradition, partly by the +authority of religion and the church. The classical romances, +however, are important in two different ways. In the first place, +they connect the early literature of France, however loosely, and +with links of however dubious authenticity, with the great history +and literature of the past. They show a certain amount of scholarship +in their authors, and in their hearers they show a capacity +of taking an interest in subjects which are not merely those +directly connected with the village or the tribe. The chansons +de geste had shown the creative power and independent character +of French literature. There is, at least about the earlier ones, +nothing borrowed, traditional or scholarly. They smack of the +soil, and they rank France among the very few countries which, in +this matter of indigenous growth, have yielded more than folk-songs +and fireside tales. The Arthurian romances, less independent +in origin, exhibit a wider range of view, a greater +knowledge of human nature, and a more extensive command +of the sources of poetical and romantic interest. The classical +epics superadd the only ingredient necessary to an accomplished +literature—that is to say, the knowledge of what has been done +by other peoples and other literatures already, and the readiness +to take advantage of the materials thus supplied.</p> + +<p><i>Romans d’Aventures.</i>—These are the three earliest developments +of French literature on the great scale. They led, however, +to a fourth, which, though later in date than all except their +latest forms and far more loosely associated as a group, is so +closely connected with them by literary and social considerations +that it had best be mentioned here. This is the <i>roman +d’aventures</i>, a title given to those almost avowedly fictitious +poems which connect themselves, mainly and centrally, neither +with French history, with the Round Table, nor with the heroes +of antiquity. These began to be written in the 13th century, and +continued until the prose form of fiction became generally preferred. +The later forms of the chansons de geste and the Arthurian +poems might indeed be well called romans d’aventures themselves. +<i>Hugues Capet</i>, for instance, a chanson in form and class of +subject, is certainly one of this latter kind in treatment; and +there is a larger class of semi-Arthurian romance, which so to +speak branches off from the main trunk. But for convenience +sake the definition we have given is preferable. The style and +subject of these romans d’aventures are naturally extremely +various. <i>Guillaume de Palerme</i> deals with the adventures of a +Sicilian prince who is befriended by a were-wolf; <i>Le Roman de +l’escoufle</i>, with a heroine whose ring is carried off by a sparrow-hawk +(<i>escoufle</i>), like Prince Camaralzaman’s talisman; <i>Guy of +Warwick</i>, with one of the most famous of imaginary heroes; +<i>Meraugis de Portléguez</i> is a sort of branch or offshoot of the +romances of the Round Table; <i>Cléomadès</i>, the work of the +trouvère Adenès le Roi, who also rehandled the old chanson +subjects of <i>Ogier</i> and <i>Berte aux grans piés</i>, connects itself once +more with the <i>Arabian Nights</i> as well as with Chaucer forwards +in the introduction of a flying mechanical horse. There is, in +short, no possibility of classifying their subjects. The habit of +writing in gestes, or of necessarily connecting the new work with +an older one, had ceased to be binding, and the instinct of fiction +writing was free; yet those romans d’aventures do not rank quite +as high in literary importance as the classes which preceded them. +This under-valuation arises rather from a lack of originality and +distinctness of savour than from any shortcomings in treatment. +Their versification, usually octosyllabic, is pleasant enough; but +there is not much distinctness of character about them, and their +incidents often strike the reader with something of the sameness, +but seldom with much of the naïveté, of those of the older poems. +Nevertheless some of them attained to a very high popularity, +such, for instance, as the <i>Partenopex de Blois</i> of Denis Pyramus, +which has a motive drawn from the story of <i>Cupid and Psyche</i> +and the charming <i>Floire et Blanchefleur</i>, giving the woes of a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>114</span> +Christian prince and a Saracen slave-girl. With them may be +connected a certain number of early romances and fictions of +various dates in prose, none of which can vie in charm with +<i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i> (13th century), an exquisite literary presentment +of medieval sentiment in its most delightful form.</p> + +<p>In these classes maybe said to be summed up the literature of +feudal chivalry in France. They were all, except perhaps the last, +composed by one class of persons, the trouvères, and +performed by another, the jongleurs. The latter, +<span class="sidenote">General characteristics of early narrative.</span> +indeed, sometimes presumed to compose for himself, +and was denounced as a <i>troveor batard</i> by the indignant +members of the superior caste. They were all originally +intended to be performed in the <i>palais marberin</i> of the baron to +an audience of knights and ladies, and, when reading became +more common, to be read by such persons. They dealt therefore +chiefly, if not exclusively, with the class to whom they were +addressed. The bourgeois and the villain, personages of political +nonentity at the time of their early composition, come in for +far slighter notice, although occasionally in the few curious +instances we have mentioned, and others, persons of a class +inferior to the seigneur play an important part. The habit of +private wars and of insurrection against the sovereign supply +the motives of the chanson de geste, the love of gallantry, +adventure and foreign travel those of the romances Arthurian +and miscellaneous. None of these motives much affected the +lower classes, who were, with the early developed temper of the +middle- and lower-class Frenchman, already apt to think and +speak cynically enough of tournaments, courts, crusades and +the other occupations of the nobility. The communal system +was springing up, the towns were receiving royal encouragement +as a counterpoise to the authority of the nobles. The corruptions +and maladministration of the church attracted the satire rather +of the citizens and peasantry who suffered by them, than of the +<span class="sidenote">Spread of literary taste.</span> +nobles who had less to fear and even something to gain. +On the other hand, the gradual spread of learning, +inaccurate and ill-digested perhaps, but still learning, +not only opened up new classes of subjects, but opened +them to new classes of persons. The thousands of students who +flocked to the schools of Paris were not all princes or nobles. +Hence there arose two new classes of literature, the first consisting +of the embodiment of learning of one kind or other in the vulgar +tongue. The other, one of the most remarkable developments of +sportive literature which the world has seen, produced the second +indigenous literary growth of which France can boast, namely, +the fabliaux, and the almost more remarkable work which is an +immense conglomerate of fabliaux, the great beast-epic of the +Roman de Renart.</p> + +<p><i>Fabliaux.</i>—There are few literary products which have more +originality and at the same time more diversity than the fabliau. +The epic and the drama, even when they are independently +produced, are similar in their main characteristics all the world +over. But there is nothing in previous literature which exactly +corresponds to the fabliau. It comes nearest to the Aesopic fable +and its eastern origins or parallels. But differs from these +in being less allegorical, less obviously moral (though a moral +of some sort is usually if not always enforced), and in having +a much more direct personal interest. It is in many degrees +further removed from the parable, and many degrees nearer to +the novel. The story is the first thing, the moral the second, +and the latter is never suffered to interfere with the former. +These observations apply only to the fabliaux, properly so called, +but the term has been used with considerable looseness. The +collectors of those interesting pieces, Barbazan, Méon, Le Grand +d’Aussy, have included in their collections large numbers of +miscellaneous pieces such as <i>dits</i> (rhymed descriptions of various +objects, the most famous known author of which was Baudouin +de Condé, 13th century), and <i>débats</i> (discussions between two +persons or contrasts of the attributes of two things), sometimes +even short romances, farces and mystery plays. Not that the +fable proper—the prose classical beast-story of “Aesop”—was +neglected. Marie de France—the poetess to be mentioned +again for her more strictly poetical work—is the most literary +of not a few writers who composed what were often, after the +mysterious original poet, named <i>Ysopets</i>. Aesop, Phaedrus, +Babrius were translated and imitated in Latin and in the vernacular +by this class of writer, and some of the best known of +“fablers” date from this time. The fabliau, on the other +hand, according to the best definition of it yet achieved, is +“the recital, generally comic, of a real or possible incident +occurring in ordinary human life.” The comedy, it may be added, +is usually of a satiric kind, and occupies itself with every class +and rank of men, from the king to the villain. There is no limit +to the variety of these lively verse-tales, which are invariably +written in eight-syllabled couplets. Now the subject is the misadventure +of two Englishmen, whose ignorance of the French +language makes them confuse donkey and lamb; now it is the +fortunes of an exceedingly foolish knight, who has an amiable +and ingenious mother-in-law; now the deserved sufferings of +an avaricious or ill-behaved priest; now the bringing of an +ungrateful son to a better mind by the wisdom of babes and +sucklings. Not a few of the <i>Canterbury Tales</i> are taken directly +from fabliaux; indeed, Chaucer, with the possible exception of +Prior, is our nearest approach to a fabliau-writer. At the other +end of Europe the prose novels of Boccaccio and other Italian +tale-tellers are largely based upon fabliaux. But their influence +in their own country was the greatest. They were the first +expression of the spirit which has since animated the most +national and popular developments of French literature. Simple +and unpretending as they are in form, the fabliaux announce +not merely the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i> and the <i>Heptameron</i>, +<i>L’Avocat Patelin</i>, and <i>Pantagruel</i>, but also <i>L’Avare</i> and the +<i>Roman comique</i>, <i>Gil Blas</i> and <i>Candide</i>. They indeed do more +than merely prophesy the spirit of these great performances—they +directly lead to them. The prose-tale and the farce are +the direct outcomes of the fabliau, and the prose-tale and the +farce once given, the novel and the comedy inevitably follow.</p> + +<p>The special period of fabliau composition appears to have been +the 12th and 13th centuries. It signifies on the one side the +growth of a lighter and more sportive spirit than had +yet prevailed, on another the rise in importance of +<span class="sidenote">Social importance of fabliaux.</span> +other and lower orders of men than the priest and the +noble, on yet another the consciousness on the part +of these lower orders of the defects of the two privileged classes, +and of the shortcomings of the system of polity under which +these privileged classes enjoyed their privileges. There is, however, +in the fabliau proper not so very much of direct satire, this +being indeed excluded by the definition given above, and by the +thoroughly artistic spirit in which that definition is observed. +The fabliaux are so numerous and so various that it is difficult +to select any as specially representative. We may, however, +mention, both as good examples and as interesting from their +subsequent history, <i>Le Vair Palfroi</i>, treated in English by Leigh +Hunt and by Peacock; <i>Le Vilain Mire</i>, the original consciously +or unconsciously followed in <i>Le Médecin malgré lui</i>; <i>Le Roi +d’Angleterre et le jongleur d’Éli</i>; <i>La houce partie</i>; <i>Le Sot Chevalier</i>, +an indecorous but extremely amusing story; <i>Les deux bordeors +ribaus</i>, a dialogue between two jongleurs of great literary interest, +containing allusions to the chansons de geste and romances most +in vogue; and <i>Le vilain qui conquist paradis par plait</i>, one of the +numerous instances of what has unnecessarily puzzled moderns, +the association in medieval times of sincere and unfeigned faith +with extremely free handling of its objects. This lightheartedness +in other subjects sometimes bubbled over into the <i>fatrasie</i>, +an almost pure nonsense-piece, parent of the later <i>amphigouri</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Roman de Renart.</i>—If the fabliaux are not remarkable for +direct satire, that element is supplied in more than compensating +quantity by an extraordinary composition which is closely +related to them. <i>Le Roman de Renart</i>, or <i>History of Reynard the +Fox</i>, is a poem, or rather series of poems, which, from the end of +the 12th to the middle of the 14th century, served the citizen +poets of northern France, not merely as an outlet for literary +expression, but also as a vehicle of satirical comment,—now on +the general vices and weaknesses of humanity, now on the usual +corruptions in church and state, now on the various historical +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>115</span> +events which occupied public attention from time to time. The +enormous popularity of the subject is shown by the long vogue +which it had, and by the empire which it exercised over generations +of writers who differed from each other widely in style and +temper. Nothing can be farther from the allegorical erudition, +the political diatribes and the sermonizing moralities of the +authors of <i>Renart le Contre-fait</i> than the sly naïveté of the writers +of the earlier branches. Yet these and a long and unknown +series of intermediate bards the fox-king pressed into his service, +and it is scarcely too much to say that, during the two centuries +of his reign, there was hardly a thought in the popular mind +which, as it rose to the surface, did not find expression in an +addition to the huge cycle of <i>Renart</i>.</p> + +<p>We shall not deal with the controversies which have been +raised as to the origin of the poem and its central idea. The +latter may have been a travestie of real persons and actual +events, or it may (and much more probably) have been an +expression of thoughts and experiences which recur in every +generation. France, the Netherlands and Germany have +contended for the honour of producing Renart; French, Flemish, +German and Latin for the honour of first describing him. It is +sufficient to say that the spirit of the work seems to be more +that of the borderland between France and Flanders than of any +other district, and that, wherever the idea may have originally +arisen, it was incomparably more fruitful in France than in +any other country. The French poems which we possess on the +subject amount in all to nearly 100,000 lines, independently +of mere variations, but including the different versions of <i>Renart +le Contre-fait</i>. This vast total is divided into four different +poems. The most ancient and remarkable is that edited by +Méon under the title of <i>Roman du Renart</i>, and containing, with +some additions made by M. Chabaille, 37 branches and about +32,000 lines. It must not, however, be supposed that this total +forms a continuous poem like the <i>Aeneid</i> or <i>Paradise Lost</i>. Part +was pretty certainly written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud, but he +was not the author of the whole. On the contrary, the separate +branches are the work of different authors, hardly any of whom +are known, and, but for their community of subject and to some +extent of treatment, might be regarded as separate poems. +The history of Renart, his victories over Isengrim, the wolf, +Bruin, the bear, and his other unfortunate rivals, his family +affection, his outwittings of King Noble the Lion and all the +rest, are too well known to need fresh description here. It is +perhaps in the subsequent poems, though they are far less known +and much less amusing, that the hold which the idea of Renart +had obtained on the mind of northern France, and the ingenious +uses to which it was put, are best shown. The first of these +is <i>Le Couronnement Renart</i>, a poem of between 3000 and 4000 +lines, attributed, on no grounds whatever, to the poetess Marie +de France, and describing how the hero by his ingenuity got +himself crowned king. This poem already shows signs of direct +moral application and generalizing. These are still more apparent +in <i>Renart le Nouvel</i>, a composition of some 8000 lines, finished +in the year 1288 by the Fleming Jacquemart Giélée. Here the +personification, of which, in noticing the <i>Roman de la rose</i>, we +shall soon have to give extended mention, becomes evident. +Instead of or at least beside the lively personal Renart who +used to steal sausages, set Isengrim fishing with his tail, or make +use of Chanticleer’s comb for a purpose for which it was certainly +never intended, we have <i>Renardie</i>, an abstraction of guile and +hypocrisy, triumphantly prevailing over other and better +qualities. Lastly, as the <i>Roman de la rose</i> of William of Lorris +is paralleled by <i>Renart le Nouvel</i>, so its continuation by Jean de +Meung is paralleled by the great miscellany of <i>Renart le Contre-fait</i>, +which, even in its existing versions, extends to fully 50,000 +lines. Here we have, besides floods of miscellaneous erudition +and discourse, political argument of the most direct and important +kind. The wrongs of the lower orders are bitterly urged. +They are almost openly incited to revolt; and it is scarcely too +much to say, as M. Lenient has said, that the closely following +Jacquerie is but a practical carrying out of the doctrines of the +anonymous satirists of <i>Renart le Contre-fait</i>, one of whom (if +indeed there was more than one) appears to have been a clerk +of Troyes.</p> + +<p><i>Early Lyric Poetry.</i>—Side by side with these two forms of +literature, the epics and romances of the higher classes, and the +fabliau, which, at least in its original, represented rather the +feelings of the lower, there grew up a third kind, consisting of +purely lyrical poetry. The song literature of medieval France +is extremely abundant and beautiful. From the 12th to the +15th century it received constant accessions, some signed, some +anonymous, some purely popular in their character, some the +work of more learned writers, others again produced by members +of the aristocracy. Of the latter class it may fairly be said that +the catalogue of royal and noble authors boasts few if any names +superior to those of Thibaut de Champagne, king of Navarre +at the beginning of the 13th century, and Charles d’Orléans, the +father of Louis XII., at the beginning of the 15th. Although +much of this lyric poetry is anonymous, the more popular part +of it almost entirely so, yet M. Paulin Paris was able to enumerate +some hundreds of French chansonniers between the 11th and the +13th century. The earliest song literature, chiefly known in the +delightful collection of Bartsch (<i>Altfranzösische Romanzen und +Pastourellen</i>), is mainly sentimental in character. The collector +divides it under the two heads of romances and pastourelles, +the former being usually the celebration of the loves of a noble +knight and maiden, and recounting how Belle Doette or Eglantine +or Oriour sat at her windows or in the tourney gallery, or embroidering +silk and samite in her chamber, with her thoughts +on Gerard or Guy or Henry,—the latter somewhat monotonous +but naïve and often picturesque recitals, very often in the first +person, of the meeting of an errant knight or minstrel with a +shepherdess, and his cavalier but not always successful wooing. +With these, some of which date from the 12th century, may be +contrasted, at the other end of the medieval period, the more +varied and popular collection dating in their present form from +the 15th century, and published in 1875 by M. Gaston Paris. +In both alike, making allowance for the difference of their age +and the state of the language, may be noticed a charming lyrical +faculty and great skill in the elaboration of light and suitable +metres. Especially remarkable is the abundance of refrains of +an admirably melodious kind. It is said that more than 500 of +these exist. Among the lyric writers of these four centuries +whose names are known may be mentioned Audefroi le Bastard +<span class="sidenote">Audefroit le Bastard.<br /><br /> +Thibaut de Champagne.</span> +(12th century), the author of the charming song of <i>Belle +Idoine</i>, and others no way inferior, Quesnes de Bethune, +the ancestor of Sully, whose song-writing inclines +to a satirical cast in many instances, the Vidame de Chartres, +Charles d’Anjou, King John of Brienne, the châtelain de Coucy, +Gace Bruslé, Colin Muset, while not a few writers mentioned +elsewhere—Guyot de Provins, Adam de la Halle, Jean Bodel +and others—were also lyrists. But none of them, except perhaps +Audefroi, can compare with Thibaut IV. (1201-1253), +who united by his possessions and ancestry a connexion +with the north and the south, and who employed the +methods of both districts but used the language of the +north only. Thibaut was supposed to be the lover of Blanche +of Castile, the mother of St Louis, and a great deal of his verse +is concerned with his love for her. But while knights and nobles +were thus employing lyric poetry in courtly and sentimental +verse, lyric forms were being freely employed by others, both of +high and low birth, for more general purposes. Blanche and +Thibaut themselves came in for contemporary lampoons, and both +at this time and in the times immediately following, a cloud of +writers composed light verse, sometimes of a lyric sometimes of a +narrative kind, and sometimes in a mixture of both. By far the +<span class="sidenote">Rutebœf.</span> +most remarkable of these is Rutebœuf (a name which +is perhaps a nickname), the first of a long series of +French poets to whom in recent days the title Bohemian has +been applied, who passed their lives between gaiety and misery, +and celebrated their lot in both conditions with copious verse. +Rutebœuf is among the earliest French writers who tell us their +personal history and make personal appeals. But he does not +confine himself to these. He discusses the history of his times, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>116</span> +upbraids the nobles for their desertion of the Latin empire of +Constantinople, considers the expediency of crusading, inveighs +against the religious orders, and takes part in the disputes +between the pope and the king. He composes pious poetry too, +and in at least one poem takes care to distinguish between the +church which he venerates and the corrupt churchmen whom +he lampoons. Besides Rutebœuf the most characteristic figure +of his class and time (about the middle of the 13th century) is +<span class="sidenote">Adam de la Halle.<br /><br /> +Lais.</span> +Adam de la Halle, commonly called the Hunchback +of Arras. The earlier poems of Adam are of a sentimental +character, the later ones satirical and somewhat +ill-tempered. Such, for instance, is his invective against his +native city. But his chief importance consists in his <i>jeux</i>, the +<i>Jeu de la feuillie</i>, the <i>Jeu de Robin et Marion</i>, dramatic compositions +which led the way to the regular dramatic form. Indeed +the general tendency of the 13th century is to satire, fable and +farce, even more than to serious or sentimental poetry. We +should perhaps except the <i>lais</i>, the chief of which +are known under the name of Marie de France. These +lays are exclusively Breton in origin, though not in application, +and the term seems originally to have had reference rather to +the music to which they were sung than to the manner or matter +of the pieces. Some resemblance to these lays may perhaps be +traced in the genuine Breton songs published by M. Luzel. The +subjects of the lais are indifferently taken from the Arthurian +cycle, from ancient story, and from popular tradition, and, at +any rate in Marie’s hands, they give occasion for some passionate, +and in the modern sense really romantic, poetry. The most +famous of all is the <i>Lay of the Honeysuckle</i>, traditionally assigned +to Sir Tristram.</p> + +<p><i>Satiric</i> and <i>Didactic Works.</i>—Among the direct satirists of +the middle ages, one of the earliest and foremost is Guyot de +Provins, a monk of Clairvaux and Cluny, whose <i>Bible</i>, as he calls +it, contains an elaborate satire on the time (the beginning of the +13th century), and who was imitated by others, especially +Hugues de Brégy. The same spirit soon betrayed itself in curious +travesties of the romances of chivalry, and sometimes invades +the later specimens of these romances themselves. One of the +earliest examples of this travesty is the remarkable composition +entitled <i>Audigier</i>. This poem, half fabliau and half romance, is +not so much an instance of the heroi-comic poems which afterwards +found so much favour in Italy and elsewhere, as a direct +and ferocious parody of the Carlovingian epic. The hero Audigier +is a model of cowardice and disloyalty; his father and mother, +Turgibus and Rainberge, are deformed and repulsive. The +exploits of the hero himself are coarse and hideous failures, and +the whole poem can only be taken as a counterblast to the spirit +of chivalry. Elsewhere a trouvère, prophetic of Rabelais, +describes a vast battle between all the nations of the world, +the quarrel being suddenly atoned by the arrival of a holy man +bearing a huge flagon of wine. Again, we have the history of a +solemn crusade undertaken by the citizens of a country town +against the neighbouring castle. As erudition and the fancy for +allegory gained ground, satire naturally availed itself of the +opportunity thus afforded it; the disputes of Philippe le Bel +with the pope and the Templars had an immense literary +influence, partly in the concluding portions of the <i>Renart</i>, partly +in the <i>Roman de la rose</i>, still to be mentioned, and partly in other +satiric allegories of which the chief is the romance of <i>Fauvel</i>, +attributed to François de Rues. The hero of this is an allegorical +personage, half man and half horse, signifying the union of bestial +degradation with human ingenuity and cunning. Fauvel (the +name, it may be worth while to recall, occurs in Langland) is +a divinity in his way. All the personages of state, from kings and +popes to mendicant friars, pay their court to him.</p> + +<p>But this serious and discontented spirit betrays itself also +in compositions which are not parodies or travesties in form. +One of the latest, if not absolutely the latest (for +Cuvelier’s still later <i>Chronique de Du Guesclin</i> is only a +<span class="sidenote">Baudouin de Sebourc.</span> +most interesting <i>imitation</i> of the <i>chanson</i> form adapted +to recent events), of the chansons de geste is <i>Baudouin +de Sebourc</i>, one of the members of the great romance or cycle of +romances dealing with the crusades, and entitled Le Chevalier au +Cygne. <i>Baudouin de Sebourc</i> dates from the early years of the +14th century. It is strictly a chanson de geste in form, and also +in the general run of its incidents. The hero is dispossessed of +his inheritance by the agency of traitors, fights his battle with +the world and its injustice, and at last prevails over his enemy +Gaufrois, who has succeeded in obtaining the kingdom of Friesland +and almost that of France. Gaufrois has as his assistants +two personages who were very popular in the poetry of the +time,—viz., the Devil, and Money. These two sinister figures +pervade the fabliaux, tales and fantastic literature generally +of the time. M. Lenient, the historian of French satire, has well +remarked that a romance as long as the <i>Renart</i> might be spun out +of the separate short poems of this period which have the Devil +for hero, and many of which form a very interesting transition +between the fabliau and the mystery. But the Devil is in one +respect a far inferior hero to Renart. He has an adversary in the +Virgin, who constantly upsets his best-laid schemes, and who +does not always treat him quite fairly. The abuse of usury at +the time, and the exactions of the Jews and Lombards, were +severely felt, and Money itself, as personified, figures largely in +the popular literature of the time.</p> + +<p><i>Roman de la Rose.</i>—A work of very different importance from +all of these, though with seeming touches of the same spirit, +a work which deserves to take rank among the most +important of the middle ages, is the <i>Roman de la rose</i>,—one +<span class="sidenote">William of Lorris.</span> +of the few really remarkable books which is +the work of two authors, and that not in collaboration but in +continuation one of the other. The author of the earlier part was +Guillaume de Lorris, who lived in the first half of the 13th century; +the author of the later part was Jean de Meung, who was born +about the middle of that century, and whose part in the <i>Roman</i> +dates at least from its extreme end. This great poem exhibits in +its two parts very different characteristics, which yet go to make +up a not inharmonious whole. It is a love poem, and yet it is +satire. But both gallantry and raillery are treated in an entirely +allegorical spirit; and this allegory, while it makes the poem +tedious to hasty appetites of to-day, was exactly what gave it +its charm in the eyes of the middle ages. It might be described +as an <i>Ars amoris</i> crossed with a <i>Quodlibeta</i>. This mixture +exactly hit the taste of the time, and continued to hit it for two +centuries and a half. When its obvious and gallant meaning was +attacked by moralists and theologians, it was easy to quote the +example of the Canticles, and to furnish esoteric explanations of +the allegory. The writers of the 16th century were never tired +of quoting and explaining it. Antoine de Baïf, indeed, gave the +simple and obvious meaning, and declared that “La rose c’est +d’amours le guerdon gracieux”; but Marot, on the other hand, +gives us the choice of four mystical interpretations,—the rose +being either the state of wisdom, the state of grace, the state of +eternal happiness or the Virgin herself. We cannot here analyse +this celebrated poem. It is sufficient to say that the lover meets +all sorts of obstacles in his pursuit of the rose, though he has for +a guide the metaphorical personage Bel-Accueil. The early part, +which belongs to William of Lorris, is remarkable for its gracious +<span class="sidenote">Jean de Meung.</span> +and fanciful descriptions. Forty years after Lorris’s +death, Jean de Meung completed it in an entirely +different spirit. He keeps the allegorical form, and +indeed introduces two new personages of importance, Nature and +Faux-semblant. In the mouths of these personages and of +another, Raison, he puts the most extraordinary mixture of +erudition and satire. At one time we have the history of classical +heroes, at another theories against the hoarding of money, about +astronomy, about the duty of mankind to increase and multiply. +Accounts of the origin of loyalty, which would have cost the poet +his head at some periods of history, and even communistic ideas, +are also to be found here. In Faux-semblant we have a real +creation of the theatrical hypocrite. All this miscellaneous +and apparently incongruous material in fact explains the success +of the poem. It has the one characteristic which has at all times +secured the popularity of great works of literature. It holds +the mirror up firmly and fully to its age. As we find in Rabelais +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>117</span> +the characteristics of the Renaissance, in Montaigne those of +the sceptical reaction from Renaissance and reform alike, in +Molière those of the society of France after Richelieu had tamed +and levelled it, in Voltaire and Rousseau respectively the two +aspects of the great revolt,—so there are to be found in the <i>Roman +de la rose</i> the characteristics of the later middle age, its gallantry, +its mysticism, its economical and social troubles and problems, +its scholastic methods of thought, its naïve acceptance as science +of everything that is written, and at the same time its shrewd +and indiscriminate criticism of much that the age of criticism +has accepted without doubt or question. The <i>Roman de la rose</i>, +as might be supposed, set the example of an immense literature of +allegorical poetry, which flourished more and more until the +Renaissance. Some of these poems we have already mentioned, +some will have to be considered under the head of the 15th +century. But, as usually happens in such cases and was certain +to happen in this case, the allegory which has seemed tedious to +many, even in the original, became almost intolerable in the +majority of the imitations.</p> + +<p>We have observed that, at least in the later section of the +<i>Roman de la rose</i>, there is observable a tendency to import into +the poem indiscriminate erudition. This tendency is +now remote from our poetical habits; but in its own +<span class="sidenote">Early didactic verse.</span> +day it was only the natural result of the use of poetry +for all literary purposes. It was many centuries +before prose became recognized as the proper vehicle for instruction, +and at a very early date verse was used as well for educational +and moral as for recreative and artistic purposes. French +verse was the first born of all literary mediums in modern European +speech, and the resources of ancient learning were certainly +not less accessible in France than in any other country. Dante, +in his <i>De vulgari eloquio</i>, acknowledges the excellence of the +didactic writers of the Langue d’Oïl. We have already alluded +to the <i>Bestiary</i> of Philippe de Thaun, a Norman trouvère who +lived and wrote in England during the reign of Henry Beauclerc. +Besides the <i>Bestiary</i>, which from its dedication to Queen Adela +has been conjectured to belong to the third decade of the 12th +century, Philippe wrote also in French a <i>Liber de creaturis</i>, both +works being translated from the Latin. These works of mystical +and apocryphal physics and zoology became extremely popular +in the succeeding centuries, and were frequently imitated. +A moralizing turn was also given to them, which was much +helped by the importation of several miscellanies of Oriental +origin, partly tales, partly didactic in character, the most celebrated +of which is the <i>Roman des sept sages</i>, which, under that +title and the variant of <i>Dolopathos</i>, received repeated treatment +from French writers both in prose and verse. The odd notion +of an <i>Ovide moralisé</i> used to be ascribed to Philippe de Vitry, +bishop of Meaux (1291?-1391?), a person complimented by +Petrarch, but is now assigned to a certain Chrétien Legonais. +Art, too, soon demanded exposition in verse, as well as science. +The favourite pastime of the chase was repeatedly dealt with, +notably in the <i>Roi Modus</i> (1325), mixed prose and verse; the +<i>Deduits de la chasse</i> (1387), of Gaston de Foix, prose; and the +<i>Tresor de Venerie</i> of Hardouin (1394), verse. Very soon didactic +verse extended itself to all the arts and sciences. Vegetius and +his military precepts had found a home in French octosyllables +as early as the 12th century; the end of the same age saw the +ceremonies of knighthood solemnly versified, and <i>napes</i> (maps) +<i>du monde</i> also soon appeared. At last, in 1245, Gautier of Metz +translated from various Latin works into French verse a sort +of encyclopaedia, while another, incongruous but known as +<i>L’Image du monde</i>, exists from the same century. Profane +knowledge was not the only subject which exercised didactic +poets at this time. Religious handbooks and commentaries on +the scriptures were common in the 13th and following centuries, +and, under the title of <i>Castoiements, Enseignements</i> and <i>Doctrinaux</i>, +moral treatises became common. The most famous of +these, the <i>Castoiement d’un père à son fils</i>, falls under the class, +already mentioned, of works due to oriental influence, being +derived from the Indian <i>Panchatantra</i>. In the 14th century the +influence of the <i>Roman de la rose</i> helped to render moral verse +frequent and popular. The same century, moreover, which +witnessed these developments of well-intentioned if not always +<span class="sidenote">Artificial forms of verse.</span> +judicious erudition witnessed also a considerable change +in lyrical poetry. Hitherto such poetry had chiefly +been composed in the melodious but unconstrained +forms of the romance and the pastourelle. In the +14th century the writers of northern France subjected themselves +to severer rules. In this age arose the forms which for so long +a time were to occupy French singers,—the ballade, the rondeau, +the rondel, the triolet, the chant royal and others. These +received considerable alterations as time went on. We possess +not a few <i>Artes poëticae</i>, such as that of Eustache Deschamps +at the end of the 14th century, that formerly ascribed to Henri +de Croy and now to Molinet at the end of the 15th, and that +of Thomas Sibilet in the 16th, giving particulars of them, and +these particulars show considerable changes. Thus the term +rondeau, which since Villon has been chiefly limited to a poem of +15 lines, where the 9th and 15th repeat the first words of the first, +was originally applied both to the rondel, a poem of 13 or 14 +lines, where the first two are twice repeated integrally, and to the +triolet, one of 8 only, where the first line occurs three times +and the second twice. The last is an especially popular metre, +and is found where we should least expect it, in the dialogue +of the early farces, the speakers making up triolets between them. +As these three forms are closely connected, so are the ballade +and the chant royal, the latter being an extended and more +stately and difficult version of the former, and the characteristic +of both being the identity of rhyme and refrain in the several +stanzas. It is quite uncertain at what time these fashions were +first cultivated, but the earliest poets who appear to have practised +them extensively were born at the close of the 13th and the +beginning of the 14th centuries. Of these Guillaume de Machault +(<i>c.</i> 1300-1380) is the oldest. He has left us 80,000 verses, +never yet completely printed. Eustache Deschamps (<i>c.</i> 1340-<i>c.</i> 1410) +was nearly as prolific, but more fortunate as more +meritorious, the Société des anciens Textes having at last provided +a complete edition of him. Froissart the historian (1333-1410) +was also an agreeable and prolific poet. Deschamps, the most +famous as a poet of the three, has left us nearly 1200 ballades +and nearly 200 rondeaux, besides much other verse all manifesting +very considerable poetical powers. Less known but not less +noteworthy, and perhaps the earliest of all, is Jehannot de Lescurel, +whose personality is obscure, and most of whose works are lost, +but whose remains are full of grace. Froissart appears to have +had many countrymen in Hainault and Brabant who devoted +themselves to the art of versification; and the <i>Livre des cent +ballades</i> of the Marshal Boucicault (1366-1421) and his friends—<i>c.</i> +1390—shows that the French gentleman of the 14th century +was as apt at the ballade as his Elizabethan peer in England +was at the sonnet.</p> + +<p><i>Early Drama.</i>—Before passing to the prose writers of the +middle ages, we have to take some notice of the dramatic +productions of those times—productions of an extremely +interesting character, but, like the immense +<span class="sidenote">Mysteries and miracles.</span> +majority of medieval literature, poetic in form. The +origin or the revival of dramatic composition in France +has been hotly debated, and it has been sometimes contended +that the tradition of Latin comedy was never entirely lost, but +was handed on chiefly in the convents by adaptations of the +Terentian plays, such as those of the nun Hroswitha. There +is no doubt that the mysteries (subjects taken from the sacred +writings) and miracle plays (subjects taken from the legends of +the saints and the Virgin) are of very early date. The mystery +of the <i>Foolish Virgins</i> (partly French, partly Latin), that of +<i>Adam</i> and perhaps that of <i>Daniel</i>, are of the 12th century, +though due to unknown authors. Jean Bodel and Ruteboeuf, +already mentioned, gave, the one that of <i>Saint Nicolas</i> at the +confines of the 12th and 13th, the other that of <i>Théophile</i> later +in the 13th itself. But the later moralities, soties, and farces +seem to be also in part a very probable development of the +simpler and earlier forms of the fabliau and of the tenson or jeu-parti, +a poem in simple dialogue much used by both troubadours +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>118</span> +and trouvères. The fabliau has been sufficiently dealt with +already. It chiefly supplied the subject; and some miracle-plays +and farces are little more than fabliaux thrown into +dialogue. Of the jeux-partis there are many examples, varying +from very simple questions and answers to something like regular +dramatic dialogue; even short romances, such as <i>Aucassin et +Nicolette</i>, were easily susceptible of dramatization. But the +<i>Jeu de la feuillie</i> (or <i>feuillée</i>) of Adam de la Halle seems to be +the earliest piece, profane in subject, containing something more +than mere dialogue. The poet has not indeed gone far for his +subject, for he brings in his own wife, father and friends, the +interest being complicated by the introduction of stock characters +(the doctor, the monk, the fool), and of certain fairies—personages +already popular from the later romances of chivalry. Another +piece of Adam’s, <i>Le Jeu de Robin et Marion</i>, also already alluded +to, is little more than a simple throwing into action of an ordinary +pastourelle with a considerable number of songs to music. Nevertheless +later criticism has seen, and not unreasonably, in these +two pieces the origin in the one case of farce, and thus indirectly +of comedy proper, in the other of comic opera.</p> + +<p>For a long time, however, the mystery and miracle-plays +remained the staple of theatrical performance, and until the +13th century actors as well as performers were more or less taken +from the clergy. It has, indeed, been well pointed out that the +offices of the church were themselves dramatic performances, +and required little more than development at the hands of the +mystery writers. The occasional festive outbursts, such as the +Feast of Fools, that of the Boy Bishop and the rest, helped on +the development. The variety of mysteries and miracles was +very great. A single manuscript contains forty miracles of the +Virgin, averaging from 1200 to 1500 lines each, written in octosyllabic +couplets, and at least as old as the 14th century, most +of them perhaps much earlier. The mysteries proper, or plays +taken from the scriptures, are older still. Many of these are +exceedingly long. There is a <i>Mystère de l’Ancien Testament</i>, +which extends to many volumes, and must have taken weeks +to act in its entirety. The <i>Mystère de la Passion</i>, though not +quite so long, took several days, and recounts the whole history +of the gospels. The best apparently of the authors of these +pieces, which are mostly anonymous, were two brothers, Arnoul +and Simon Gréban (authors of the <i>Actes des apôtres</i>, and in the +first case of the <i>Passion</i>), <i>c.</i> 1450, while a certain Jean Michel +(d. 1493) is credited with having continued the <i>Passion</i> from +30,000 lines to 50,000. But these performances, though they +held their ground until the middle of the 16th century and +extended their range of subject from sacred to profane history—legendary +as in the <i>Destruction de Troie</i>, contemporary as in the +<span class="sidenote">Profane drama.</span> +<i>Siège d’Orléans</i>—were soon rivalled by the more profane +performances of the moralities, the farces and the +soties. The palmy time of all these three kinds is +the 15th century, while the Confrérie de la Passion itself, the +special performers of the sacred drama, only obtained the licence +constituting it by an ordinance of Charles VI. in 1402. In order, +however, to take in the whole of the medieval theatre at a glance, +we may anticipate a little. The Confraternity was not itself +the author or performer of the profaner kind of dramatic performance. +This latter was due to two other bodies, the clerks of the +Bazoche and the Enfans sans Souci. As the Confraternity was +chiefly composed of tradesmen and persons very similar to Peter +Quince and his associates, so the clerks of the Bazoche were +members of the legal profession of Paris, and the Enfans sans +Souci were mostly young men of family. The morality was the +special property of the first, the sotie of the second. But as the +moralities were sometimes decidedly tedious plays, though by +no means brief, they were varied by the introduction of farces, +of which the jeux already mentioned were the early germ, and of +which <i>L’Avocat Patelin</i>, dated by some about 1465 and certainly +about 200 years subsequent to Adam de la Halle, is the most +famous example.</p> + +<p>The morality was the natural result on the stage of the immense +literary popularity of allegory in the <i>Roman de la rose</i> and its +imitations. There is hardly an abstraction, a virtue, a vice, a +disease, or anything else of the kind, which does not figure in +<span class="sidenote">Moralities.</span> +these compositions. There is Bien Advisé and Mal Advisé, the +good boy and the bad boy of nursery stories, who fall +in respectively with Faith, Reason and Humility, and +with Rashness, Luxury and Folly. There is the hero Mange-Tout, +who is invited to dinner by Banquet, and meets after +dinner very unpleasant company in Colique, Goutte and Hydropisie. +Honte-de-dire-ses-Péchés might seem an anticipation of +Puritan nomenclature to an English reader who did not remember +the contemporary or even earlier <i>personae</i> of Langland’s +poem. Some of these moralities possess distinct dramatic merit; +among these is mentioned <i>Les Blasphémateurs</i>, an early and remarkable +presentation of the Don Juan story. But their general +character appears to be gravity, not to say dullness. The Enfans +sans Souci, on the other hand, were definitely satirical, and +nothing if not amusing. The chief of the society was entitled +<span class="sidenote">Soties.</span> +Prince des Sots, and his crown was a hood decorated +with asses’ ears. The sotie was directly satirical, and +only assumed the guise of folly as a stalking-horse for shooting +wit. It was more Aristophanic than any other modern form of +comedy, and like its predecessor, it perished as a result of its +political application. Encouraged for a moment as a political +engine at the beginning of the 16th century, it was soon absolutely +forbidden and put down, and had to give place in one direction +to the lampoon and the prose pamphlet, in another to forms of +comic satire more general and vague in their scope. The farce, +on the other hand, having neither moral purpose nor political +intention, was a purer work of art, enjoyed a wider range of subject, +and was in no danger of any permanent extinction. Farcical +interludes were interpolated in the mysteries themselves; short +farces introduced and rendered palatable the moralities, while +the sotie was itself but a variety of farce, and all the kinds were +sometimes combined in a sort of tetralogy. It was a short +composition, 500 verses being considered sufficient, while the +morality might run to at least 1000 verses, the miracle-play to +nearly double that number, and the mystery to some 40,000 or +50,000, or indeed to any length that the author could find in his +heart to bestow upon the audience, or the audience in their +patience to suffer from the author. The number of persons and +societies who acted these performances grew to be very large, +being estimated at more than 5000 towards the end of the 15th +century. Many fantastic personages came to join the Prince des +Sots, such as the Empereur de Galilée, the Princes de l’Étrille, +and des Nouveaux Mariés, the Roi de l’Épinette, the Recteur +des Fous. Of the pieces which these societies represented one +only, that of <i>Maître Patelin</i>, is now much known; but many +are almost equally amusing. <i>Patelin</i> itself has an immense +number of versions and editions. Other farces are too numerous +to attempt to classify; they bear, however, in their subjects, +as in their manner, a remarkable resemblance to the fabliaux, +their source. Conjugal disagreements, the unpleasantness of +mothers-in-law, the shifty or, in the earlier stages, clumsy valet +and chambermaid, the mishaps of too loosely given ecclesiastics, +the abuses of relics and pardons, the extortion, violence, and +sometimes cowardice of the seigneur and the soldiery, the corruption +of justice, its delays and its pompous apparatus, supply +the subjects. The treatment is rather narrative than dramatic +in most cases, as might be expected, but makes up by the liveliness +of the dialogue for the deficiency of elaborately planned +action and interest. All these forms, it will be observed, are +directly or indirectly comic. Tragedy in the middle ages is +represented only by the religious drama, except for a brief period +towards the decline of that form, when the “profane” mysteries +referred to above came to be represented. These were, however, +rather “histories,” in the Elizabethan sense, than tragedies +proper.</p> + +<p><i>Prose History.</i>—In France, as in all other countries of whose +literary developments we have any record, literature in prose +is considerably later than literature in verse. We have +certain glosses or vocabularies possibly dating as far +<span class="sidenote">Early chronicles.</span> +back as the 8th or even the 7th century; we have the +Strassburg oaths, already described, of the 9th, and a commentary +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>119</span> +on the prophet Jonas which is probably as early. In the 10th +century there are some charters and muniments in the vernacular; +of the 11th the laws of William the Conqueror are the +most important document; while the <i>Assises de Jérusalem</i> of +Godfrey of Bouillon date, though not in the form in which we now +possess them, from the same age. The 12th century gives us +certain translations of the Scriptures, and the remarkable +Arthurian romances already alluded to; and thenceforward +French prose, though long less favoured than verse, begins to +grow in importance. History, as is natural, was the first subject +which gave it a really satisfactory opportunity of developing its +powers. For a time the French chroniclers contented themselves +with Latin prose or with French verse, after the fashion of Wace +and the Belgian, Philippe Mouskés (1215-1283). These, after a +fashion universal in medieval times, began from fabulous or +merely literary origins, and just as Wyntoun later carries back +the history of Scotland to the terrestrial paradise, so does +Mouskés start that of France from the rape of Helen. But soon +prose chronicles, first translated, then original, became common; +the earliest of all is said to have been that of the pseudo-Turpin, +which thus recovered in prose the language which had originally +clothed it in verse, and which, to gain a false appearance of +authenticity, it had exchanged still earlier for Latin. Then came +French selections and versions from the great series of historical +compositions undertaken by the monks of St Denys, the so-called +<i>Grandes Chroniques de France</i> from the date of 1274, when they +first took form in the hands of a monk styled Primat, to the reign +of Charles V., when they assumed the title just given. But the +first really remarkable author who used French prose as a vehicle +of historical expression is Geoffroi de Villehardouin, marshal of +Champagne, who was born rather after the middle of the 12th +<span class="sidenote">Villehardouin.</span> +century, and died in Greece in 1212. Under the title of <i>Conquête +de Constantinoble</i> Villehardouin has left us a history +of the fourth crusade, which has been accepted by all +competent judges as the best picture extant of feudal +chivalry in its prime. The <i>Conquête de Constantinoble</i> has been +well called a chanson de geste in prose, and indeed in the surprising +nature of the feats it celebrates, in the abundance of detail, +and in the vivid and picturesque poetry of the narration, it +equals the very best of the chansons. Even the repetition of +the same phrases which is characteristic of epic poetry repeats +itself in this epic prose; and as in the chansons so in Villehardouin, +few motives appear but religious fervour and the love of fighting, +though neither of these excludes a lively appetite for booty and +a constant tendency to disunion and disorder. Villehardouin +was continued by Henri de Valenciennes, whose work is less +remarkable, and has more the appearance of a rhymed chronicle +thrown into prose, a process which is known to have been +actually applied in some cases. Nor is the transition from +Villehardouin to Jean de Joinville (considerable in point of time, +for Joinville was not born till ten years after Villehardouin’s +death) in point of literary history immediate. The rhymed +chronicles of Philippe Mouskés and Guillaume Guiart belong to +this interval; and in prose the most remarkable works are the +<i>Chronique de Reims</i>, a well-written history, having the interesting +characteristics of taking the lay and popular side, and the great +compilation edited (in the modern sense) by Baudouin d’Avesnes +<span class="sidenote">Joinville.</span> +(1213-1289). Joinville (? 1224-1317), whose special +subject is the Life of St Louis, is far more modern than +even the half-century which separates him from Villehardouin +would lead us to suppose. There is nothing of the knight-errant +about him personally, notwithstanding his devotion to his +hero. Our Lady of the Broken Lances is far from being his +favourite saint. He is an admirable writer, but far less simple +than Villehardouin; the good King Louis tries in vain to make +him share his own rather high-flown devotion. Joinville is shrewd, +practical, there is even a touch of the Voltairean about him; +but he, unlike his predecessor, has political ideas and antiquarian +curiosity, and his descriptions are often very creditable pieces of +deliberate literature.</p> + +<p>It is very remarkable that each of the three last centuries +of feudalism should have had one specially and extraordinarily +gifted chronicler to describe it. What Villehardouin is to the +12th and Joinville to the 13th century, that Jean Froissart +<span class="sidenote">Froissart.</span> +(1337-1410) is to the 14th. His picture is the most +famous as it is the most varied of the three, but it has +special drawbacks as well as special merits. French critics have +indeed been scarcely fair to Froissart, because of his early +partiality to our own nation in the great quarrel of the time, +forgetting that there was really no reason why he as a Hainaulter +should take the French side. But there is no doubt that if the +duty of an historian is to take in all the political problems of +his time, Froissart certainly comes short of it. Although the +feudal state in which knights and churchmen were alone of +estimation was at the point of death, and though new orders of +society were becoming important, though the distress and +confusion of a transition state were evident to all, Froissart +takes no notice of them. Society is still to him all knights and +ladies, tournaments, skirmishes and feasts. He depicts these, +not like Joinville, still less like Villehardouin, as a sharer in them, +but with the facile and picturesque pen of a sympathizing literary +onlooker. As the comparison of the <i>Conquête de Constantinoble</i> +with a chanson de geste is inevitable, so is that of Froissart’s +<i>Chronique</i> with a roman d’aventures.</p> + +<p>For Provençal Literature see the separate article under that +heading.</p> + +<p><i>15th Century.</i>—The 15th century holds a peculiar and somewhat +disputed position in the history of French literature, as, +indeed, it does in the history of the literature of all Europe, +except Italy. It has sometimes been regarded as the final stage +of the medieval period, sometimes as the earliest of the modern, +the influence of the Renaissance in Italy already filtering through. +Others again have taken the easy step of marking it as an age +of transition. There is as usual truth in all these views. +Feudality died with Froissart and Eustache Deschamps. The +modern spirit can hardly be said to arise before Rabelais and +Ronsard. Yet the 15th century, from the point of view of +French literature, is much more remarkable than its historians +have been wont to confess. It has not the strongly marked and +compact originality of some periods, and it furnishes only one +name of the highest order of literary interest; but it abounds +in names of the second rank, and the very difference which +exists between their styles and characters testifies to the existence +of a large number of separate forces working in their different +manners on different persons. Its theatre we have already +treated by anticipation, and to it we shall afterwards recur. It +was the palmy time of the early French stage, and all the dramatic +styles which we have enumerated then came to perfection. Of +no other kind of literature can the same be said. The century +which witnessed the invention of printing naturally devoted +itself at first more to the spreading of old literature than to the +production of new. Yet as it perfected the early drama, so it +produced the prose tale. Nor, as regards individual and single +names, can the century of Charles d’Orléans, of Alain Chartier, of +Christine de Pisan, of Coquillart, of Comines, and, above all, of +Villon, be said to lack illustrations.</p> + +<p>First among the poets of the period falls to be mentioned the +shadowy personality of Olivier Basselin. Modern criticism +has attacked the identity of the jovial miller, who +was once supposed to have written and perhaps +<span class="sidenote">Christine de Pisan.</span> +invented the songs called <i>vaux de vire</i>, and to have +also carried on a patriotic warfare against the English. But +though Jean le Houx may have written the poems published +under Basselin’s name two centuries later, it is taken as certain +that an actual Olivier wrote actual vaux de vire at the beginning +of the 15th century. About Christine de Pisan (1363-1430) and +Alain Chartier (1392-<i>c.</i> 1430) there is no such doubt. Christine +was the daughter of an Italian astrologer who was patronized by +Charles V. She was born in Italy but brought up in France, and +she enriched the literature of her adopted country +<span class="sidenote">Alain Chartier.</span> +with much learning, good sense and patriotism. She +wrote history, devotional works and poetry; and +though her literary merit is not of the highest, it is very far from +despicable. Alain Chartier, best known to modern readers by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>120</span> +the story of <i>Margaret of Scotland’s Kiss</i>, was a writer of a somewhat +similar character. In both Christine and Chartier there is +a great deal of rather heavy moralizing, and a great deal of rather +pedantic erudition. But it is only fair to remember that the +intolerable political and social evils of the day called for a good +deal of moralizing, and that it was the function of the writers +of this time to fill up as well as they could the scantily filled +vessels of medieval science and learning. A very different +<span class="sidenote">Charles d’Orléans.</span> +person is Charles d’Orléans (1391-1465), one of the +greatest of <i>grands seigneurs</i>, for he was the father +of a king of France, and heir to the duchies of Orléans +and Milan. Charles, indeed, if not a Roland or a Bayard, was an +admirable poet. He is the best-known and perhaps the best +writer of the graceful poems in which an artificial versification +is strictly observed, and helps by its recurrent lines and modulated +rhymes to give to poetry something of a musical accompaniment +even without the addition of music properly so called. His ballades +are certainly inferior to those of Villon, but his rondels are unequalled. +For fully a century and a half these forms engrossed +the attention of French lyrical poets. Exercises in them were +produced in enormous numbers, and of an excellence which has +only recently obtained full recognition even in France. Charles +d’Orléans is himself sufficient proof of what can be done in them +in the way of elegance, sweetness, and grace which some have +unjustly called effeminacy. But that this effeminacy was no +natural or inevitable fault of the ballades and the rondeaux +was fully proved by the most remarkable literary figure of the +15th century in France. To François Villon (1431-1463?), +<span class="sidenote">Villon.</span> +as to other great single writers, no attempt can be +made to do justice in this place. His remarkable +life and character especially lie outside our subject. But he is +universally recognized as the most important single figure of +French literature before the Renaissance. His work is very +strange in form, the undoubtedly genuine part of it consisting +merely of two compositions, known as the great and little +Testament, written in stanzas of eight lines of eight syllables +each, with lyrical compositions in ballade and rondeau form +interspersed. Nothing in old French literature can compare +with the best of these, such as the “Ballade des dames du +temps jadis,” the “Ballade pour sa mère,” “La Grosse Margot,” +“Les Regrets de la belle Heaulmière,” and others; while the +whole composition is full of poetical traits of the most extraordinary +vigour, picturesqueness and pathos. Towards the end +of the century the poetical production of the time became very +large. The artificial measures already alluded to, and others +far more artificial and infinitely less beautiful, were largely +practised. The typical poet of the end of the 15th century is +Guillaume Crétin (d. 1525), who distinguished himself by writing +verses with punning rhymes, verses ending with double or treble +repetitions of the same sound, and many other tasteless absurdities, +in which, as Pasquier remarks, “il perdit toute la grâce et la +<span class="sidenote">Crétin.</span> +liberté de la composition.” The other favourite +direction of the poetry of the time was a vein of +allegorical moralizing drawn from the <i>Roman de la rose</i> through +the medium of Chartier and Christine, which produced “Castles +of Love,” “Temples of Honour,” and such like. The combination +of these drifts in verse-writing produced a school known in +literary history, from a happy phrase of the satirist Coquillart +(<i>v. inf.</i>), as the “Grands Rhétoriqueurs.” The chief of these besides +Crétin were Jean Molinet (d. 1507); Jean Meschinot (<i>c.</i> 1420-1491), +author of the <i>Lunettes des princes</i>; Florimond Robertet +(d. 1522); Georges Chastellain (1404-1475), to be mentioned +again; and Octavien de Saint-Gelais (1466-1502), father of a +better poet than himself. Yet some of the minor poets of the +time are not to be despised. Such are Henri Baude (1430-1490), a +less pedantic writer than most, Martial d’Auvergne (1440-1508), +whose principal work is <i>L’Amant rendu cordelier au service de +l’amour</i>, and others, many of whom formed part of the poetical +court which Charles d’Orléans kept up at Blois after his release.</p> + +<p>While the serious poetry of the age took this turn, there was +no lack of lighter and satirical verse. Villon, indeed, were it +not for the depth and pathos of his poetical sentiment, might +be claimed as a poet of the lighter order, and the patriotic +diatribes against the English to which we have alluded easily +passed into satire. The political quarrels of the latter part of +the century also provoked much satirical composition. The +disputes of the Bien Public and those between Louis XI. and +Charles of Burgundy employed many pens. The most remarkable +piece of the light literature of the first is “Les Ânes Volants,” +a ballad on some of the early favourites of Louis. The battles +of France and Burgundy were waged on paper between Gilles +des Ormes and the above-named Georges Chastelain, typical +representatives of the two styles of 15th-century poetry already +alluded to—Des Ormes being the lighter and more graceful +writer, Chastelain a pompous and learned allegorist. The most +remarkable representative of purely light poetry outside the +<span class="sidenote">Coquillart.</span> +theatre is Guillaume Coquillart (1421-1510), a lawyer +of Champagne, who resided for the greater part of his +life in Reims. This city, like others, suffered from the +pitiless tyranny of Louis XI. The beginnings of the standing +army which Charles VII. had started were extremely unpopular, +and the use to which his son put them by no means removed +this unpopularity. Coquillart described the military man of the +period in his <i>Monologue du gendarme cassé</i>. Again, when the +king entertained the idea of unifying the taxes and laws of the +different provinces, Coquillart, who was named commissioner for +this purpose, wrote on the occasion a satire called <i>Les Droits +nouveaux</i>. A certain kind of satire, much less good-tempered +than the earlier forms, became indeed common at this epoch. +M. Lenient has well pointed out that a new satirical personification +dominates this literature. It is no longer Renart with his +cynical gaiety, or the curiously travestied and almost amiable +Devil of the Middle Ages. Now it is Death as an incident ever +present to the imagination, celebrated in the thousand repetitions +of the <i>Danse Macabre</i>, sculptured all over the buildings of the +time, even frequently performed on holidays and in public. With +the usual tendency to follow pattern, the idea of the “dance” +seems to have been extended, and we have a <i>Danse aux aveugles</i> +(1464) from Pierre Michaut, where the teachers are fortune, +love and death, all blind. All through the century, too, anonymous +verse of the lighter kind was written, some of it of great +merit. The folk-songs already alluded to, published by Gaston +Paris, show one side of this composition, and many of the pieces +contained in M. de Montaiglon’s extensive <i>Recueil des anciennes +poésies françaises</i> exhibit others.</p> + +<p>The 15th century was perhaps more remarkable for its achievements +in prose than in poetry. It produced, indeed, no prose +writer of great distinction, except Comines; but it witnessed +serious, if not extremely successful, efforts at prose composition. +The invention of printing finally substituted the reader for the +listener, and when this substitution has been effected, the main +inducement to treat unsuitable subjects in verse is gone. The +study of the classics at first hand contributed to the same end. +As early as 1458 the university of Paris had a Greek professor. +But long before this time translations in prose had been made. +Pierre Bercheure (Bersuire) (1290-1352) had already translated +Livy. Nicholas Oresme (<i>c.</i> 1334-1382), the tutor of Charles V., +gave a version of certain Aristotelian works, which enriched +the language with a large number of terms, then strange enough, +now familiar. Raoul de Presles (1316-1383) turned into French +the <i>De civitate Dei</i> of St Augustine. These writers or others +composed <i>Le Songe du vergier</i>, an elaborate discussion of the +power of the pope. The famous chancellor, Jean Charlier or +Gerson (1363-1429), to whom the <i>Imitation</i> has among so many +others been attributed, spoke constantly and wrote often in the +vulgar tongue, though he attacked the most famous and popular +work in that tongue, the <i>Roman de la rose</i>. Christine de Pisan +and Alain Chartier were at least as much prose writers as poets; +and the latter, while he, like Gerson, dealt much with the reform +of the church, used in his <i>Quadriloge invectif</i> really forcible +language for the purpose of spurring on the nobles of France +to put an end to her sufferings and evils. These moral and +didactic treatises were but continuations of others, which for +convenience sake we have hitherto left unnoticed. Though +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>121</span> +verse was in the centuries prior to the 15th the favourite medium +for literary composition, it was by no means the only one; and +moral and educational treatises—some referred to above—already +existed in pedestrian phrase. Certain household books (<i>Livres de +raison</i>) have been preserved, some of which date as far back +as the 13th century. These contain not merely accounts, but +family chronicles, receipts and the like. Accounts of travel, +especially to the Holy Land, culminated in the famous <i>Voyage</i> +of Mandeville which, though it has never been of so much importance +in French as in English, perhaps first took vernacular +form in the French tongue. Of the 14th century, we have a +<i>Menagier de Paris</i>, intended for the instruction of a young wife, +and a large number of miscellaneous treatises of art, science +and morality, while private letters, mostly as yet unpublished, +exist in considerable numbers, and are generally of the moralizing +character; books of devotion, too, are naturally frequent.</p> + +<p>But the most important divisions of medieval energy in prose +composition are the spoken exercises of the pulpit and the bar. +The beginnings of French sermons have been much +discussed, especially the question whether St Bernard, +<span class="sidenote">Early sermon-writers.</span> +whose discourses we possess in ancient, but doubtfully +contemporary French, pronounced them in that +language or in Latin. Towards the end of the 12th century, +however, the sermons of Maurice de Sully (1160-1196) present +the first undoubted examples of homiletics in the vernacular, +and they are followed by many others—so many indeed that the +13th century alone counts 261 sermon-writers, besides a large +body of anonymous work. These sermons were, as might indeed +be expected, chiefly cast in a somewhat scholastic form—theme, +exordium, development, example and peroration following +in regular order. The 14th-century sermons, on the other hand, +have as yet been little investigated. It must, however, be +remembered that this age was the most famous of all for its +scholastic illustrations, and for the early vigour of the Dominican +and Franciscan orders. With the end of the century and the +beginning of the 15th, the importance of the pulpit begins to +revive. The early years of the new age have Gerson for their +representative, while the end of the century sees the still more +famous names of Michel Menot (1450-1518), Olivier Maillard +(<i>c.</i> 1430-1502), and Jean Rauhn (1443-1514), all remarkable +for the practice of a vigorous and homely style of oratory, recoiling +before no aid of what we should nowadays style buffoonery, +and manifesting a creditable indifference to the indignation of +principalities and powers. Louis XI. is said to have threatened +to throw Maillard into the Seine, and many instances of the boldness +of these preachers and the rough vigour of their oratory +have been preserved. Froissart had been followed as a chronicler +by Enguerrand de Monstrelet (<i>c.</i> 1390-1453) and by the historiographers +of the Burgundian court, Chastelain, already mentioned, +<span class="correction" title="amended from whole">whose</span> interesting <i>Chronique de Jacques de Lalaing</i> is much the +most attractive part of his work, and Olivier de la Marche. The +memoir and chronicle writers, who were to be of so much importance +in French literature, also begin to be numerous at this +period. Juvenal des Ursins (1388-1473), an anonymous bourgeois +de Paris (two such indeed), and the author of the <i>Chronique +scandaleuse</i>, may be mentioned as presenting the character of +minute observation and record which has distinguished the +class ever since. Jean le maire de (not <i>des</i>) Belges (1473-<i>c.</i> 1525) +was historiographer to Louis XII. and wrote <i>Illustrations des +Gaules</i>. But Comines (1445-1509) is no imitator of Froissart +<span class="sidenote">Comines.</span> +or of any one else. The last of the quartette of great +French medieval historians, he does not yield to any +of his three predecessors in originality or merit, but he is very +different from them. He fully represents the mania of the time +for statecraft, and his book has long ranked with that of Machiavelli +as a manual of the art, though he has not the absolutely +non-moral character of the Italian. His memoirs, considered +merely as literature, show a style well suited to their purport,—not, +indeed, brilliant or picturesque, but clear, terse and +thoroughly well suited to the expression of the acuteness, observation +and common sense of their author.</p> + +<p>But prose was not content with the domain of serious literature. +It had already long possessed a respectable position as a vehicle +of romance, and the end of the 14th and the beginning of the +15th centuries were pre-eminently the time when +<span class="sidenote">The Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles.</span> +the epics of chivalry were re-edited and extended in +prose. Few, however, of these extensions offer much +literary interest. On the other hand, the best prose of +the century, and almost the earliest which deserves the title of +a satisfactory literary medium, was employed for the telling +of romances in miniature. The <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i> is +undoubtedly the first work of prose belles-lettres in French, +and the first, moreover, of a long and most remarkable class +of literary work in which French writers may challenge all +comers with the certainty of victory—the short prose tale +of a comic character. This remarkable work has usually been +attributed, like the somewhat similar but later <i>Heptaméron</i>, +to a knot of literary courtiers gathered round a royal personage, +in this case the dauphin Louis, afterwards Louis XI. Some +evidence has recently been produced which seems to show that +this tradition, which attributed some of the tales to Louis +himself, is erroneous, but the question is still undecided. The +subjects of the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i> are by no means new. +They are simply the old themes of the fabliaux treated in the +old way. The novelty is in the application of prose to such a +purpose, and in the crispness, the fluency and the elegance of +the prose used. The fortunate author or editor to whom these +admirable tales have of late been attributed is Antoine de la +<span class="sidenote">Antoine de la Salle.</span> +Salle (1398-1461), who, if this attribution and certain +others be correct, must be allowed to be one of the +most original and fertile authors of early French literature. +La Salle’s one acknowledged work is the story +of <i>Petit Jehan de Saintré</i>, a short romance exhibiting great command +of character and abundance of delicate draughtsmanship. +To this not only the authorship, part-authorship or editorship +of the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i> has been added; but the still +more famous and important work of <i>L’Avocat Patelin</i> has been +assigned by respectable, though of course conjecturing, authority +to the same paternity. The generosity of critics towards La +Salle has not even stopped here. A fourth masterpiece of the +period, <i>Les Quinze Joies de mariage</i>, has also been assigned +to him. This last work, like the other three, is satirical in subject, +and shows for the time a wonderful mastery of the language. +Of the fifteen joys of marriage, or, in other words, the fifteen +miseries of husbands, each has a chapter assigned to it, and each +is treated with the peculiar mixture of gravity and ridicule which +it requires. All who have read the book confess its infinite wit +and the grace of its style. It is true that it has been reproached +with cruelty and with a lack of the moral sentiment. But +humanity and morality were not the strong point of the 15th +century. There is, it must be admitted, about most of its +productions a lack of poetry and a lack of imagination, produced, +it may be, partly by political and other conditions outside literature, +but very observable in it. The old forms of literature +<span class="sidenote">Influence of the Renaissance.</span> +itself had lost their interest, and new ones possessing +strength to last and power to develop themselves +had not yet appeared. It was impossible, even if the +taste for it had survived, to spin out the old themes +any longer. But the new forces required some time to set to +work, and to avail themselves of the tremendous weapon which +the press had put into their hands. When these things had +adjusted themselves, literature of a varied and vigorous kind +became once more possible and indeed necessary, nor did it +take long to make its appearance.</p> + +<p><i>16th Century.</i>—In no country was the literary result of the +Renaissance more striking and more manifold than in France. +The double effect of the study of antiquity and the religious +movement produced an outburst of literary developments of the +most diverse kinds, which even the fierce and sanguinary civil +dissensions of the Reformation did not succeed in checking. +While the Renaissance in Italy had mainly exhausted its effects +by the middle of the 16th century, while in Germany those effects +only paved the way for a national literature, and did not themselves +greatly contribute thereto, while in England it was not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>122</span> +till the extreme end of the period that a great literature was +forthcoming—in France almost the whole century was marked +by the production of capital works in every branch of literary +effort. Not even the 17th century, and certainly not the 18th, +can show such a group of prose writers and poets as is formed +by Calvin, St Francis de Sales, Montaigne, du Vair, Bodin, +d’Aubigné, the authors of the <i>Satire Ménippée</i>, Monluc, +Brantôme, Pasquier, Rabelais, des Periers, Herberay des Essarts, +Amyot, Garnier, Marot, Ronsard and the rest of the “Pléiade,” +and finally Regnier. These great writers are not merely remarkable +for the vigour and originality of their thoughts, the freshness, +variety and grace of their fancy, the abundance of their learning +and the solidity of their arguments in the cases where argument +is required. Their great merit is the creation of a language and +a style able to give expression to these good gifts. The foregoing +account of the medieval literature of France will have shown +sufficiently that it is not lawful to despise the literary capacities +and achievements of the older French. But the old language, +with all its merits, was ill-suited to be a vehicle for any but +the simpler forms of literary composition. Pleasant or affecting +tales could be told in it with interest and pathos. Songs of charming +<i>naïveté</i> and grace could be sung; the requirements of the +epic and the chronicle were suitably furnished. But it was barren +of the terms of art and science; it did not readily lend itself to +sustained eloquence, to impassioned poetry or to logical discussion. +It had been too long accustomed to leave these things to +Latin as their natural and legitimate exponent, and it bore +marks of its original character as a <i>lingua rustica</i>, a tongue suited +for homely conversation, for folk-lore and for ballads, rather than +for the business of the forum and the court, the speculations of +the study, and the declamation of the theatre. Efforts had indeed +been made, culminating in the heavy and tasteless erudition of +the schools of Chartier and Crétin, to supply the defect; but +it was reserved for the 16th century completely to efface it. +The series of prose writers from Calvin to Montaigne, of poets +from Marot to Regnier, elaborated a language yielding to no +modern tongue in beauty, richness, flexibility and strength, +a language which the reactionary purism of succeeding generations +defaced rather than improved, and the merits of which have +in still later days been triumphantly vindicated by the confession +and the practice of all the greatest writers of modern France.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Poetry.</i>—The first few years of the 16th century +were naturally occupied rather with the last developments of +the medieval forms than with the production of the new model. +The clerks of the Bazoche and the Confraternity of the Passion +still produced and acted mysteries, moralities and farces. The +poets of the “Grands Rhétoriqueurs” school still wrote elaborate +allegorical poetry. Chansons de geste, rhymed romances and +fabliaux had long ceased to be written. But the press was +multiplying the contents of the former in the prose form which +they had finally assumed, and in the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i> +there already existed admirable specimens of the short prose tale. +There even were signs, as in some writers already mentioned and +in Roger de Collérye, a lackpenny but light-hearted singer of +the early part of the century, of definite enfranchisement in +verse. But the first note of the new literature was sounded by +<span class="sidenote">Marot.</span> +Clément Marot (1496/7-1544). The son of an elder +poet, Jehan des Mares called Marot (1463-1523), +Clément at first wrote, like his father’s contemporaries, allegorical +and mythological poetry, afterwards collected in a volume with +a charming title, <i>L’Adolescence clémentine</i>. It was not till he was +nearly thirty years old that his work became really remarkable. +From that time forward till his death, about twenty years afterwards, +he was much involved in the troubles and persecutions +of the Huguenot party to which he belonged; nor was the protection +of Marguerite d’Angoulême, the chief patroness of +Huguenots and men of letters, always efficient. But his troubles, +so far from harming, helped his literary faculties; and his epistles, +epigrams, <i>blasons</i> (descendants of the medieval <i>dits</i>), and <i>coq-à-l’âne</i> +became remarkable for their easy and polished style, their +light and graceful wit, and a certain elegance which had not as +yet been even attempted in any modern tongue, though the +Italian humanists had not been far from it in some of their +Latin compositions. Around Marot arose a whole school of +disciples and imitators, such as Victor Brodeau (1470?-1540), +the great authority on rondeaux, Maurice Scève, a fertile author +of blasons, Salel, Marguerite herself (1492-1549), of whom more +hereafter, and Mellin de Saint Gelais (1491-1558). The last, +son of the bishop named above, is a courtly writer of occasional +pieces, who sustained as well as he could the <i>style marotique</i> +against Ronsard, and who has the credit of introducing the +regular sonnet into French. But the inventive vigour of the age +was so great that one school had hardly become popular before +another pushed it from its stool, and even of the Marotists +just mentioned Scève and Salel are often regarded as chief and +member respectively of a Lyonnese coterie, intermediate between +the schools of Marot and of Ronsard, containing other members +of repute such as Antoine Heroët and Charles Fontaine and +<span class="sidenote">Ronsard.</span> +claiming Louise Labé (<i>v. inf.</i>) herself. Pierre de +Ronsard (1524-1585) was the chief of this latter. At +first a courtier and a diplomatist, physical disqualification made +him change his career. He began to study the classics under +Jean Daurat (1508-1588), and with his master and five other +writers, Étienne Jodelle (1532-1573), Rémy Belleau (1528-1577), +Joachim du Bellay (1525-1560), Jean Antoine de Baïf (1532-1589), +and Pontus de Tyard (d. 1605, bishop of Châlons-sur-Saône), +composed the famous “Pléiade.” The object of this +band was to bring the French language, in vocabulary, +<span class="sidenote">The Pléiade.</span> +constructions and application, on a level with the +classical tongues by borrowings from the latter. They +would have imported the Greek licence of compound words, +though the genius of the French language is but little adapted +thereto; and they wished to reproduce in French the regular +tragedy, the Pindaric and Horatian ode, the Virgilian epic, &c. +But it is an error (though one which until recently was very +common, and which perhaps requires pretty thorough study of +their work completely to extirpate it) to suppose that they +advocated or practised <i>indiscriminate</i> borrowing. On the contrary +both in du Bellay’s famous manifesto, the <i>Deffense et illustration +de la langue française</i>, and in Ronsard’s own work, caution +and attention to the genius and the tradition of French are +insisted upon. Being all men of the highest talent, and not a +few of them men of great genius, they achieved much that they +designed, and even where they failed exactly to achieve it, they +very often indirectly produced results as important and more +beneficial than those which they intended. Their ideal of a +separate poetical language distinct from that intended for prose +use was indeed a doubtful if not a dangerous one. But it is +certain that Marot, while setting an example of elegance and +grace not easily to be imitated, set also an example of trivial and, +so to speak, pedestrian language which was only too imitable. +If France was ever to possess a literature containing something +besides fabliaux and farces, the tongue must be enriched and +strengthened. This accession of wealth and vigour it received +from Ronsard and the Ronsardists. Doubtless they went too far +and provoked to some extent the reaction which Malherbe led. +Their importations were sometimes unnecessary. It is almost +impossible to read the <i>Franciade</i> of Ronsard, and not too easy +to read the tragedies of Jodelle and Garnier, fine as the latter are +in parts. But the best of Ronsard’s sonnets and odes, the finest +of du Bellay’s <i>Antiquités de Rome</i> (translated into English by +Spenser), the exquisite <i>Vanneur</i> of the same author, and the +<i>Avril</i> of Belleau, even the finer passages of d’Aubigné and du +Bartas, are not only admirable in themselves, and of a kind not +previously found in French literature, but are also such things +as could not have been previously found, for the simple reason +that the medium of expression was wanting. They constructed +that medium for themselves, and no force of the reaction which +they provoked was able to undo their work. Adverse criticism +and the natural course of time rejected much that they had added. +The charming diminutives they loved so much went out of +fashion; their compounds (sometimes it must be confessed, +justly) had their letters of naturalization promptly cancelled; +many a gorgeous adjective, including some which could trace +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>123</span> +their pedigree to the earliest ages of French literature, but +which bore an unfortunate likeness to the new-comers, was +proscribed. But for all that no language has ever had its destiny +influenced more powerfully and more beneficially by a small +literary clique than the language of France was influenced by the +example and disciples of that Ronsard whom for two centuries +it was the fashion to deride and decry.</p> + +<p>In a sketch such as the present it is impossible to give a +separate account of individual writers, the more important of +whom will be found treated under their own names. +The effort of the “Pléiade” proper was continued and +<span class="sidenote">The Ronsardists.</span> +shared by a considerable number of minor poets, +some of them, as has been already noted, belonging to different +groups and schools. Olivier de Magny (d. 1560) and Louise +Labé (b. 1526) were poets and lovers, the lady deserving far the +higher rank in literature. There is more depth of passion in the +writings of “La Belle Cordière,” as this Lyonnese poetess +was called, than in almost any of her contemporaries. Jacques +Tahureau (1527-1555) scarcely deserves to be called a minor poet. +There is less than the usual hyperbole in the contemporary +comparison of him to Catullus, and he reminds an Englishman +of the school represented nearly a century later by Carew, +Randolph and Suckling. The title of a part of his poem—<i>Mignardises +amoureuses de l’admirée</i>—is characteristic both of +the style and of the time. Jean Doublet (<i>c.</i> 1528-<i>c.</i> 1580), Amadis +Jamyn (<i>c.</i> 1530-1585), and Jean de la Taille (1540-1608) deserve +mention at least as poets, but two other writers require a longer +allusion. Guillaume de Salluste, seigneur du Bartas (1544-1590), +<span class="sidenote">Du Bartas.</span> +whom Sylvester’s translation, Milton’s imitation, and +the copious citations of Southey’s <i>Doctor</i>, have +made known if not familiar in England, was partly a disciple +and partly a rival of Ronsard. His poem of <i>Judith</i> was eclipsed +by his better-known <i>La Divine Sepmaine</i> or epic of the Creation. +Du Bartas was a great user and abuser of the double compounds +alluded to above, but his style possesses much stateliness, and has +a peculiar solemn eloquence which he shared with the other +French Calvinists, and which was derived from the study partly +of Calvin and partly of the Bible. Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné +<span class="sidenote">D’Aubigné.</span> +(1552-1630), like du Bartas, was a Calvinist. His +genius was of a more varied character. He wrote sonnets +and odes as became a Ronsardist, but his chief poetical +work is the satirical poem of <i>Les Tragiques</i>, in which the author +brands the factions, corruptions and persecutions of the time, +and in which there are to be found alexandrines of a strength, +vigour and original cadence hardly to be discovered elsewhere, +save in Corneille and Victor Hugo. Towards the end of the +century, Philippe Desportes (1546-1606) and Jean Bertaut +(1552-1611), with much enfeebled strength, but with a certain +grace, continue the Ronsardizing tradition. Among their contemporaries +must be noticed Jean Passerat (1534-1602), a writer +of much wit and vigour and rather resembling Marot than +Ronsard, and Vauquelin de la Fresnaye (1536-1607), the author +of a valuable <i>Ars poëtica</i> and of the first French satires which +actually bear that title. Jean le Houx (fl. c. 1600) continued, +rewrote or invented the vaux de vire, commonly known as the +work of Olivier Basselin, and already alluded to, while a still +lighter and more eccentric verse style was cultivated by Étienne +Tabourot des Accords (1549-1590), whose epigrams and other +pieces were collected under odd titles, <i>Les Bigarrures, Les Touches</i>, +&c. A curious pair are Guy du Faur de Pibrac (1529-1584) and +Pierre Mathieu (b. 1563), authors of moral quatrains, which were +learnt by heart in the schools of the time, replacing the distichs +of the grammarian Cato, which, translated into French, had +served the same purpose in the middle ages.</p> + +<p>The nephew of Desportes, Mathurin Regnier (1573-1613), +marks the end, and at the same time perhaps the climax, of the +poetry of the century. A descendant at once of the +older Gallic spirit of Villon and Marot, in virtue of his +<span class="sidenote">Regnier.</span> +consummate acuteness, terseness and wit, of the school of Ronsard +by his erudition, his command of language, and his scholarship, +Regnier is perhaps the best representative of French poetry at +the critical time when it had got together all its materials, had +lost none of its native vigour and force, and had not yet submitted +to the cramping and numbing rules and restrictions which +the next century introduced. The satirical poems of Regnier, and +especially the admirable epistle to Rapin, in which he denounces +and rebuts the critical dogmas of Malherbe, are models of nervous +strength, while some of the elegies and odes contain expression +not easily to be surpassed of the softer feelings of affection and +regret. No poet has had more influence on the revival of French +poetry in the last century than Regnier, and he had imitators +in his own time, the chief of whom was Courval-Sonnet (Thomas +Sonnet, sieur de Courval) (1577-1635), author of satires of some +value for the history of manners.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Drama.</i>—The change which dramatic poetry +underwent during the 16th century was at least as remarkable +as that undergone by poetry proper. The first half of the period +saw the end of the religious mysteries, the licence of which had +irritated both the parliament and the clergy. Louis XII., at +the beginning of the century, was far from discouraging the disorderly +but popular and powerful theatre in which the Confraternity +of the Passion, the clerks of the Bazoche, and the Enfans +sans souci enacted mysteries, moralities, soties and farces. +He made them, indeed, an instrument in his quarrel with the +papacy, just as Philippe le Bel had made use of the allegorical +poems of Jehan de Meung and his fellows. Under his patronage +were produced the chief works of Gringore or Gringoire (<i>c.</i> 1480-1547), +by far the most remarkable writer of this class of composition. +His <i>Prince des sots</i> and his <i>Mystère de St Louis</i> are among +the best of their kind. An enormous volume of composition of +this class was produced between 1500 and 1550. One morality +by itself, <i>L’Homme juste et l’homme mondain</i>, contains some +36,000 lines. But in 1548, when the Confraternity was formally +established at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, leave to play sacred +subjects was expressly refused it. Moralities and soties dragged +on under difficulties till the end of the century, and the farce, +which is immortal, continually affected comedy. But the effect +of the Renaissance was to sweep away all other vestiges of the +medieval drama, at least in the capital. An entirely new class +of subjects, entirely new modes of treatment, and a different +kind of performers were introduced. The change naturally +came from Italy. In the close relationship with that country +which France had during the early years of the century, Italian +translations of the classical masterpieces were easily imported. +Soon French translations were made afresh of the <i>Electra</i>, the +<i>Hecuba</i>, the <i>Iphigenia in Aulis</i>, and the French humanists +hastened to compose original tragedies on the classical model, +especially as exhibited in the Latin tragedian Seneca. It was +impossible that the “Pléiade” should not eagerly seize such an +opportunity of carrying out its principles, and one of its members, +Jodelle (1532-1573), devoting himself mainly to dramatic +<span class="sidenote">Regular tragedy and comedy.</span> +composition, fashioned at once the first tragedy, +<i>Cléopatre</i>, and the first comedy, <i>Eugène</i>, thus setting +the example of the style of composition which for two +centuries and a half Frenchmen were to regard as the +highest effort of literary ambition. The amateur performance +of these dramas by Jodelle and his friends was followed by a +Bacchic procession after the manner of the ancients, which caused +a great deal of scandal, and was represented by both Catholics +and Protestants as a pagan orgy. The <i>Cléopâtre</i> is remarkable +as being the first French tragedy, nor is it destitute of merit. +It is curious that in this first instance the curt antithetic +<span class="grk" title="stichomuthia">στιχομυθία</span>, which was so long characteristic of French plays and +plays imitated from them, and which Butler ridicules in his +<i>Dialogue of Cat and Puss</i>, already appears. There appears also +the grandiose and smooth but stilted declamation which came +rather from the imitation of Seneca than of Sophocles, and the +tradition of which was never to be lost. <i>Cléopâtre</i> was followed +by <i>Didon</i>, which, unlike its predecessor, is entirely in alexandrines, +and observes the regular alternation of masculine and feminine +rhymes. Jodelle was followed by Jacques Grévin (1540?-1570) +with a <i>Mort de César</i>, which shows an improvement in tragic art, +and two still better comedies, <i>Les Ébahis</i> and <i>La Trésorière</i> by +Jean de la Taille (1540-1608), who made still further progress +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>124</span> +towards the accepted French dramatic pattern in his <i>Saul +furieux</i> and his <i>Corrivaux</i>, Jacques, his brother (1541-1562), and +Jean de la Péruse (1529-1554), who wrote a <i>Médée</i>. A very +<span class="sidenote">Garnier.</span> +different poet from all these is Robert Garnier (1545-1601). +Garnier is the first tragedian who deserves a +place not too far below Rotrou, Corneille, Racine, Voltaire and +Hugo, and who may be placed in the same class with them. He +chose his subjects indifferently from classical, sacred and medieval +literature. <i>Sédécie</i>, a play dealing with the capture of Jerusalem +by Nebuchadnezzar, is held to be his masterpiece, and <i>Bradamante</i> +deserves notice because it is the first tragi-comedy of merit in +French, and because the famous confidant here makes his first +appearance. Garnier’s successor, Antoine de Monchrétien or +Montchrestien (<i>c.</i> 1576-1621), set the example of dramatizing +contemporary subjects. His masterpiece is <i>L’Écossaise</i>, the +first of many dramas on the fate of Mary, queen of Scots. While +tragedy thus clings closely to antique models, comedy, as might +be expected in the country of the fabliaux, is more independent. +Italy had already a comic school of some originality, and the +French farce was too vigorous and lively a production to permit +of its being entirely overlooked. The first comic writer of great +<span class="sidenote">Larivey.</span> +merit was Pierre Larivey (<i>c.</i> 1550-<i>c.</i> 1612), an Italian +by descent. Most if not all of his plays are founded +on Italian originals, but the translations or adaptations are made +with the greatest freedom, and almost deserve the title of original +works. The style is admirable, and the skilful management +of the action contrasts strongly with the languor, the awkward +adjustment, and the lack of dramatic interest found in contemporary +tragedians. Even Molière found something to use in +Larivey.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Prose Fiction.</i>—Great as is the importance of +the 16th century in the history of French poetry, its importance +in the history of French prose is greater still. In poetry +the middle ages could fairly hold their own with any of the ages +that have succeeded them. The epics of chivalry, whether of the +cycles of Charlemagne, Arthur, or the classic heroes, not to +mention the miscellaneous romans d’aventures, have indeed +more than held their own. Both relatively and absolutely the +<i>Franciade</i> of the 16th century, the <i>Pucelle</i> of the 17th, the +<i>Henriade</i> of the 18th, cut a very poor figure beside <i>Roland</i> and +<i>Percivale</i>, <i>Gerard de Roussillon</i>, and <i>Parthenopex de Blois</i>. The +romances, ballads and pastourelles, signed and unsigned, of +medieval France were not merely the origin, but in some respects +the superiors, of the lyric poetry which succeeded them. Thibaut +de Champagne, Charles d’Orléans and Villon need not veil +their crests in any society of bards. The charming forms of the +rondel, the rondeau and the ballade have won admiration from +every competent poet and critic who has known them. The +fabliaux give something more than promise of La Fontaine, +and the two great compositions of the <i>Roman du Renart</i> and +the <i>Roman de la rose</i>, despite their faults and their alloy, will +always command the admiration of all persons of taste and +judgment who take the trouble to study them. But while +poetry had in the middle ages no reason to blush for her French +representatives, prose (always the younger and less forward +sister) had far less to boast of. With the exception of chronicles +and prose romances, no prose works of any real importance can +be quoted before the end of the 15th century, and even then the +chief if not the only place of importance must be assigned to the +<i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i>, a work of admirable prose, but necessarily +light in character, and not yet demonstrating the efficacy +of the French language as a medium of expression for serious and +weighty thought. Up to the time of the Renaissance and the +consequent reformation, Latin had, as we have already remarked, +been considered the sufficient and natural organ for this expression. +In France as in other countries the disturbance in religious +thought may undoubtedly claim the glory of having repaired +this disgrace of the vulgar tongue, and of having fitted and +taught it to express whatever thoughts the theologian, the +historian, the philosopher, the politician and the savant had +occasion to utter. But the use of prose as a vehicle for lighter +themes was more continuous with the literature that preceded, +and serves as a natural transition from poetry and the drama +to history and science. Among the prose writers, therefore, +of the 16th century we shall give the first place to the novelists +and romantic writers.</p> + +<p>Among these there can be no doubt of the precedence, in +every sense of the word, of François Rabelais (<i>c.</i> 1490-1553), +the one French writer (or with Molière one of the two) +whom critics the least inclined to appreciate the +<span class="sidenote">Rabelais.</span> +characteristics of French literature have agreed to place among +the few greatest of the world. With an immense erudition +representing almost the whole of the knowledge of his time, +with an untiring faculty of invention, with the judgment of a +philosopher, and the common sense of a man of the world, with +an observation that let no characteristic of the time pass unobserved, +and with a tenfold portion of the special Gallic gift +of good-humoured satire, Rabelais united a height of speculation +and depth of insight and a vein of poetical imagination rarely +found in any writer, but altogether portentous when taken in +conjunction with his other characteristics. His great work has +been taken for an exercise of transcendental philosophy, for a +concealed theological polemic, for an allegorical history of this +and that personage of his time, for a merely literary utterance, +for an attempt to tickle the popular ear and taste. It is all of +these, and it is none—all of them in parts, none of them in +deliberate and exclusive intention. It may perhaps be called +the exposition and commentary of all the thoughts, feelings, +aspirations and knowledge of a particular time and nation put +forth in attractive literary form by a man who for once combined +the practical and the literary spirit, the power of knowledge and +the power of expression. The work of Rabelais is the mirror +of the 16th century in France, reflecting at once its comeliness +and its uncomeliness, its high aspirations, its voluptuous tastes, +its political and religious dissensions, its keen criticism, its +eager appetite and hasty digestion of learning, its gleams of poetry, +and its ferocity of manners. In Rabelais we can divine the +“Pléiade” and Marot, the <i>Cymbalum mundi</i> and Montaigne, +Amyot and the <i>Amadis</i>, even Calvin and Duperron.</p> + +<p>It was inevitable that such extraordinary works as <i>Gargantua</i> +and <i>Pantagruel</i> should attract special imitators in the direction +of their outward form. It was also inevitable that this imitation +should frequently fix upon these Rabelaisian characteristics +which are least deserving of imitation, and most likely to be +depraved in the hands of imitators. It fell within the plan of +the master to indulge in what has been called <i>fatrasie</i>, the +huddling together, that is to say, of a medley of language and +images which is best known to English readers in the not always +successful following of Sterne. It pleased him also to disguise +his naturally terse, strong and nervous style in a burlesque +envelope of redundant language, partly ironical, partly the result +of superfluous erudition, and partly that of a certain childish +wantonness and exuberance, which is one of his raciest and +pleasantest characteristics. In both these points he was somewhat +corruptly followed. But fortunately the romancical +writers of the 16th century had not Rabelais for their sole model, +but were also influenced by the simple and straightforward +style of the <i>Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles</i>. The joint influence gives +us some admirable work. Nicholas of Troyes, a saddler of +Champagne, came too early (his <i>Grand Parangon des nouvelles +nouvelles</i> appeared in 1536) to copy Rabelais. But Noël du +Fail (d. <i>c.</i> 1585?), a judge at Rennes, shows the double influence +in his <i>Propos rustiques</i> and <i>Contes d’Eutrapel</i>, both of which, +especially the former, are lively and well-written pictures of +contemporary life and thought, as the country magistrate +actually saw and dealt with them. In 1558, however, appeared +two works of far higher literary and social interest. These are +<span class="sidenote">Des Periers.</span> +the <i>Heptaméron</i> of the queen of Navarre, and the <i>Contes et +joyeux devis</i> of Bonaventure des Periers (<i>c.</i> 1500-1544). +Des Periers, who was a courtier of Marguerite’s, has +sometimes been thought to have had a good deal +to do with the first-named work as well as with the second, +and was also the author of a curious Lucianic satire, strongly +sceptical in cast, the <i>Cymbalum mundi</i>. Indeed, not merely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>125</span> +the queen’s prose works, but also the poems gracefully entitled +<i>Les Marguerites de la Marguerite</i>, are often attributed to the +literary men whom the sister of Francis I. gathered round +her. However this may be, some single influence of power +enough to give unity and distinctness of savour evidently +<span class="sidenote">The Heptaméron.</span> +presided over the composition of the <i>Heptaméron</i>. +Composed as it is on the model of Boccaccio, its tone +and character are entirely different, and few works +have a more individual charm. The <i>Tales</i> of des Periers are +shorter, simpler and more homely; there is more wit in them +and less refinement. But both works breathe, more powerfully +perhaps than any others, the peculiar mixture of cultivated +and poetical voluptuousness with a certain religiosity and a +vigorous spirit of action which characterizes the French Renaissance. +Later in time, but too closely connected with Rabelais +in form and spirit to be here omitted, came the <i>Moyen de parvenir</i> +of Béroalde de Verville (1558?-1612?), a singular <i>fatrasie</i>, uniting +wit, wisdom, learning and indecency, and crammed with anecdotes +which are always amusing though rarely decorous.</p> + +<p>At the same time a fresh vogue was given to the chivalric +romance by Herberay’s translation of <i>Amadis de Gaula</i>. French +writers have supposed a French original for the +<i>Amadis</i> in some lost roman d’aventures. It is of course +<span class="sidenote">Amadis of Gaul.</span> +impossible to say that this is not the case, but there +is not one tittle of evidence to show that it is. At any rate +the adventures of Amadis were prolonged in Spanish through +generation after generation of his descendants. This vast work +Herberay des Essarts in 1540 undertook to translate or retranslate, +but it was not without the assistance of several followers +that the task was completed. Southey has charged Herberay +with corrupting the simplicity of the original, a charge which +does not concern us here. It is sufficient to say that the French +<i>Amadis</i> is an excellent piece of literary work, and that Herberay +deserves no mean place among the fathers of French prose. +His book had an immense popularity; it was translated into +many foreign languages, and for some time it served as a favourite +reading book for foreigners studying French. Nor is it to be +doubted that the romancers of the Scudéry and Calprenède +type in the next century were much more influenced both for +good and harm by these Amadis romances than by any of the +earlier tales of chivalry.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Historians.</i>—As in the case of the tale-tellers, +so in that of the historians, the writers of the 16th century had +traditions to continue. It is doubtful indeed whether many of +them can risk comparison as artists with the great names cf +Villehardouin and Joinville, Froissart and Comines. The 16th +century, however, set the example of dividing the functions +of the chronicler, setting those of the historian proper on one +side, and of the anecdote-monger and biographer on the other. +The efforts at regular history made in this century were not of +the highest value. But on the other hand the practice of memoir-writing, +in which the French were to excel every nation in the +world, and of literary correspondence, in which they were to +excel even their memoirs, was solidly founded.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest historical writers of the century was Claude +de Seyssel (1450-1520), whose history of Louis XII. aims not +unsuccessfully at style. De Thou (1553-1617) wrote in Latin, +but Bernard de Girard, sieur du Haillan (1537-1610), composed +a <i>Histoire de France</i> on Thucydidean principles as transmitted +through the successive mediums of Polybius, Guicciardini and +Paulus Aemilius. The instance invariably quoted, after Thierry, +of du Haillan’s method is his introduction, with appropriate +speeches, of two Merovingian statesmen who argue out the +relative merits of monarchy and oligarchy on the occasion of +the election of Pharamond. Besides du Haillan, la Popelinière +(<i>c.</i> 1540-1608), who less ambitiously attempted a history of +Europe during his own time, and expended immense labour +on the collection of information and materials, deserves mention.</p> + +<p>There is no such poverty of writers of memoirs. Robert +de la Mark, du Bellay, Marguerite de Valois (the youngest or +third Marguerite, first wife of Henri IV., 1553-1615), Villars, +Tavannes, La Tour d’Auvergne, and many others composed +commentaries and autobiographies. The well-known and very +agreeable <i>Histoire du gentil seigneur de Bayart</i> (1524) is by +an anonymous “Loyal Serviteur.” Vincent Carloix (fl. 1550), +the secretary of the marshal de Vielleville, composed some +memoirs abounding in detail and incident. The <i>Lettres</i> of +Cardinal d’Ossat (1536-1604) and the <i>Négociations</i> of Pierre +Jeannin (1540-1622) have always had a high place among +documents of their kind. But there are four collections of +memoirs concerning this time which far exceed all others in +interest and importance. The turbulent dispositions of the time, +the loose dependence of the nobles and even the smaller gentry +on any single or central authority, the rapid changes of political +situations, and the singularly active appetite, both for pleasure +and for business, for learning and for war, which distinguished +the French gentleman of the 16th century, place the memoirs +of François de Lanoue (1531-1591), Blaise de Mon[t]luc (1503-1577), +Agrippa d’Aubigné and Pierre de Bourdeille[s] Brantôme +(1540-1614) almost at the head of the literature of their class. +The name of Brantôme is known to all who have the least +tincture of French literature, and the works of the others are not +inferior in interest, and perhaps superior in spirit and conception, +to the <i>Dames Galantes</i>, the <i>Grands Capitaines</i> and the <i>Hommes +illustres</i>. The commentaries of Montluc, which Henri Quatre is +said to have called the soldier’s Bible, are exclusively military +and deal with affairs only. Montluc was governor in Guienne, +where he repressed the savage Huguenots of the south with a +savagery worse than their own. He was, however, a partisan +of order, not of Catholicism. He hung and shot both parties +with perfect impartiality, and refused to have anything to do +with the massacre of St Bartholomew. Though he was a man +of no learning, his style is excellent, being vivid, flexible and +straightforward. Lanoue, who was a moderate in politics, has +left his principles reflected in his memoirs. D’Aubigné, so often +to be mentioned, gives the extreme Huguenot side as opposed +to the royalist partisanship of Montluc and the <i>via media</i> of +<span class="sidenote">Brantôme.</span> +Lanoue. Brantôme, on the other hand, is quite free +from any political or religious prepossessions, and, +indeed, troubles himself very little about any such matters. +He is the shrewd and somewhat cynical observer, moving +through the crowd and taking note of its ways, its outward +appearance, its heroisms and its follies. It is really difficult +to say whether the recital of a noble deed of arms or the telling +of a scandalous story about a court lady gave him the most +pleasure, and impossible to say which he did best. Certainly +he had ample material for both exercises in the history of his +time.</p> + +<p>The branches of literature of which we have just given an +account may be fairly connected, from the historical point of +view, with work of the same kind that went before as well as +with work of the same kind that followed them. It was not so +with the literature of theology, law, politics and erudition, which +the 16th century also produced, and with which it for the first +time enlarged the range of composition in the vulgar tongue. +Not only had Latin been invariably adopted as the language +of composition on such subjects, but the style of the treatises +dealing with such matters had been traditional rather than +original. In speculative philosophy or metaphysics proper even +this century did not witness a great development; perhaps, +indeed, such a development was not to be expected until the +minds of men had in some degree settled down from their agitation +on more practical matters. It is not without significance that +Calvin (1509-1564) is the great figure in serious French prose +in the first half of the century, Montaigne the corresponding +figure in the second half. After Calvin and Montaigne we expect +Descartes.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Theologians.</i>—In France, as in all other countries, +the Reformation was an essentially popular movement, though +from special causes, such as the absence of political +homogeneity, the nobles took a more active part both +<span class="sidenote">Calvin.</span> +with pen and sword in it than was the case in England. But the +great textbook of the French Reformation was not the work +of any noble. Jean Calvin’s <i>Institution of the Christian Religion</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>126</span> +is a book equally remarkable in matter and in form, in circumstances +and in result. It is the first really great composition +in argumentative French prose. Its severe logic and careful +arrangement had as much influence on the manner of future +thought, both in France and the other regions whither its widespread +popularity carried it, as its style had on the expression +of such thought. It was the work of a man of only seven-and-twenty, +and it is impossible to exaggerate the originality of its +manner when we remember that hardly any models of French +prose then existed except tales and chronicles, which required +and exhibited totally different qualities of style. It is indeed +probable that had not the <i>Institution</i> been first written by its +author in Latin, and afterwards translated by him, it might have +had less dignity and vigour; but it must at the same time be +remembered that this process of composition was at least equally +likely, in the hands of any but a great genius, to produce a heavy +and pedantic style neither French nor Latin in character. Something +like this result was actually produced in some of Calvin’s +minor works, and still more in the works of many of his followers, +whose lumbering language gained for itself, in allusion to their +exile from France, the title of “style refugié.” Nevertheless, +the use of the vulgar tongue on the Protestant side, and the +possession of a work of such importance written therein, gave +the Reformers an immense advantage which their adversaries +were some time in neutralizing. Even before the <i>Institution</i>, +Lefèvre d’Étaples (1455-1537) and Guillaume Farel (1489-1565) +saw and utilized the importance of the vernacular. Calvin +(1509-1564) was much helped by Pierre Viret (1511-1571), who +wrote a large number of small theological and moral dialogues, +and of satirical pamphlets, destined to captivate as well as to +instruct the lower people. The more famous Beza (Théodore de +Bèze) (1519-1605) wrote chiefly in Latin, but he composed in +French an ecclesiastical history of the Reformed churches and +some translations of the Psalms. Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde +(1530-1593), a gentleman of Brabant, followed Viret as a satirical +pamphleteer on the Protestant side. On the other hand, the +Catholic champions at first affected to disdain the use of the +vulgar tongue, and their pamphleteers, when they did attempt +it, were unequal to the task. Towards the end of the century +a more decent war was waged with Philippe du Plessis Mornay +(1549-1623) on the Protestant side, whose work is at least as +much directed against freethinkers and enemies of Christianity +in general as against the dogmas and discipline of Rome. His +adversary, the redoubtable Cardinal du Perron (1556-1618), +who, originally a Calvinist, went over to the other side, employed +French most vigorously in controversial works, chiefly with +reference to the eucharist. Du Perron was celebrated as the first +controversialist of the time, and obtained dialectical victories +over all comers. At the same time the bishop of Geneva, St +Francis of Sales (1567-1622), supported the Catholic side, partly +by controversial works, but still more by his devotional writings. +The <i>Introduction to a Devout Life</i>, which, though actually +published early in the next century, had been written some time +previously, shares with Calvin’s <i>Institution</i> the position of the +most important theological work of the period, and is in remarkable +contrast with it in style and sentiment as well as in principles +and plan. It has indeed been accused of a certain effeminacy, +the appearance of which is in all probability mainly due to this +very contrast. The 16th century does not, like the 17th, distinguish +itself by literary exercises in the pulpit. The furious +preachers of the League, and their equally violent opponents, +have no literary value.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Moralists and Political Writers.</i>—The religious +dissensions and political disturbances of the time could not fail +to exert an influence on ethical and philosophical +thought. Yet, as we have said, the century was +<span class="sidenote">Montaigne.</span> +not prolific of pure philosophical speculation. The +scholastic tradition, though long sterile, still survived, and with +it the habit of composing in Latin all works in any way connected +with philosophy. The <i>Logic</i> of Ramus in 1555 is cited as the +first departure from this rule. Other philosophical works are +few, and chiefly express the doubt and the freethinking which +were characteristic of the time. This doubt assumes the form +of positive religious scepticism only in the <i>Cymbalum mundi</i> of +Bonaventure des Periers, a remarkable series of dialogues which +excited a great storm, and ultimately drove the author to commit +suicide. The <i>Cymbalum mundi</i> is a curious anticipation of the +18th century. The literature of doubt, however, was to receive +its principal accession in the famous essays of Michel Eyguem, +seigneur de Montaigne (1533-1592). It would be a mistake to +imagine the existence of any sceptical propaganda in this charming +and popular book. Its principle is not scepticism but egotism; +and as the author was profoundly sceptical, this quality necessarily +rather than intentionally appears. We have here to deal only very +superficially with this as with other famous books, but it cannot +be doubted that it expresses the mental attitude of the latter +part of the century as completely as Rabelais expresses the mental +attitude of the early part. There is considerably less vigour and +life in this attitude. Inquiry and protest have given way to a +placid conviction that there is not much to be found out, and +that it does not much matter; the erudition though abundant +is less indiscriminate, and is taken in and given out with less +gusto; exuberant drollery has given way to quiet irony; and +though neither business nor pleasure is decried, both are regarded +rather as useful pastimes incident to the life of man than with +the eager appetite of the Renaissance. From the purely literary +point of view, the style is remarkable from its absence of pedantry +In construction, and yet for its rich vocabulary and picturesque +brilliancy. The follower and imitator of Montaigne, Pierre +Charron (1541-1603), carried his master’s scepticism to a somewhat +more positive degree. His principal book, <i>De la sagesse</i>, +scarcely deserves the comparative praise which Pope has given +it. On the other hand Guillaume du Vair (1556-1621), a lawyer +and orator, takes the positive rather than the negative side in +morality, and regards the vicissitudes in human affairs from the +religious and theological point of view in a series of works +characterized by the special merit of the style of great orators.</p> + +<p>The revolutionary and innovating instinct which showed itself +in the 16th century with reference to church government and +doctrine spread naturally enough to political matters. The +intolerable disorder of the religious wars naturally set the +thinkers of the age speculating on the doctrines of government +in general. The favourite and general study of antiquity helped +this tendency, and the great accession of royal power in all the +monarchies of Europe invited a speculative if not a practical reaction. +The persecutions of the Protestants naturally provoked +a republican spirit among them, and the violent antipathy +of the League to the houses of Valois and Bourbon made its +partisans adopt almost openly the principles of democracy and +tyrannicide.</p> + +<p>The greatest political writer of the age is Jean Bodin (1530-1596), +whose <i>République</i> is founded partly on speculative considerations +like the political theories of the ancients, +and partly on an extended historical inquiry. Bodin, +<span class="sidenote">Bodin.</span> +like most lawyers who have taken the royalist side, is for unlimited +monarchy, but notwithstanding this, he condemns religious +persecution and discourages slavery. In his speculations on the +connexion between forms of government and natural causes, +he serves as a link between Aristotle and Montesquieu. On the +other hand, the causes which we have mentioned made a large +number of writers adopt opposite conclusions. Étienne de la +Boétie (1530-1563), the friend of Montaigne’s youth, composed +the <i>Contre un or Discours de la servitude volontaire</i>, a protest +against the monarchical theory. The boldness of the protest +and the affectionate admiration of Montaigne have given +la Boétie a much higher reputation than any extant work of his +actually deserves. The <i>Contre un</i> is a kind of prize essay, full of +empty declamation borrowed from the ancients, and showing no +grasp of the practical conditions of politics. Not much more +historically based, but far more vigorous and original, is the +<i>Franco-Gallia</i> of François Hotmann (1524-1590), a work which +appeared both in Latin and French, which extols the authority +of the states-general, represents them as direct successors of the +political institutions of Gauls and Franks, and maintains the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>127</span> +right of insurrection. In the last quarter of the century political +animosity knew no bounds. The Protestants beheld a divine +instrument in Poltrot de Méré, the Catholics in Jacques Clément. +The Latin treatises of Hubert Languet (1518-1581) and Buchanan +formally vindicated—the first, like Hotmann, the right of rebellion +based on an original contract between prince and people, +the second the right of tyrannicide. Indeed, as Montaigne +confesses, divine authorization for political violence was claimed +and denied by both parties according as the possession or the +expectancy of power belonged to each, and the excesses of the +preachers and pamphleteers knew no bounds.</p> + +<p>Every one, however, was not carried away. The literary +merits of the chancellor Michel de l’Hôpital (1507-1573) are not +very great, but his efforts to promote peace and moderation were +unceasing. On the other side Lanoue, with far greater literary +gifts, pursued the same ends, and pointed out the ruinous +consequences of continued dissension. Du Plessis Mornay took +a part in political discussion even more important than that +which he bore in religious polemics, and was of the utmost service +to Henri Quatre in defending his cause against the League, as +was also Hurault, another author of state papers. Du Vair, +already mentioned, powerfully assisted the same cause by his +successful defence of the Salic law, the disregard of which by the +Leaguer states-general was intended to lead to the admission of +the Spanish claim to the crown. But the foremost work against +<span class="sidenote">Satire Ménippée.</span> +the League was the famous <i>Satire Ménippée</i> (1594), +in a literary point of view one of the most remarkable +of political books. The <i>Ménippée</i> was the work of no +single author, but was due, it is said, to the collaboration of five, +Pierre Leroi, who has the credit of the idea, Jacques Gillot, +Florent Chrétien, Nicolas Rapin (1541-1596) and Pierre Pithou +(1539-1596), with some assistance in verse from Passerat and +Gilles Durand. The book is a kind of burlesque report of the +meeting of the states-general, called for the purpose of supporting +the views of the League in 1593. It gives an account of the +procession of opening, and then we have the supposed speeches +of the principal characters—the duc de Mayenne, the papal +legate, the rector of the university (a ferocious Leaguer) and +others. But by far the most remarkable is that attributed to +Claude d’Aubray, the leader of the <i>Tiers État</i>, and said to be +written by Pithou, in which all the evils of the time and the +malpractices of the leaders of the League are exposed and +branded. The satire is extraordinarily bitter and yet perfectly +good-humoured. It resembles in character rather that of +Butler, who unquestionably imitated it, than any other. The +style is perfectly suited to the purpose, having got rid of almost +all vestiges of the cumbrousness of the older tongue without +losing its picturesque quaintness. It is no wonder that, as we are +told by contemporaries, it did more for Henri Quatre than all +other writings in his cause. In connexion with politics some +mention of legal orators and writers may be necessary. In 1539 +the ordinance of Villers-Cotterets enjoined the exclusive use of +the French language in legal procedure. The bar and bench of +France during the century produced, however, besides those +names already mentioned in other connexions, only one deserving +of special notice, that of Étienne Pasquier (1529-1615), author +of a celebrated speech against the right of the Jesuits to take +part in public teaching. This he inserted in his great work, +<i>Recherches de la France</i>, a work dealing with almost every +aspect of French history whether political, antiquarian or +literary.</p> + +<p><i>16th-Century Savants.</i>—One more division, and only one, +that of scientific and learned writers pure and simple, remains. +Much of the work of this kind during the period was naturally +done in Latin, the vulgar tongue of the learned. But in France, +as in other countries, the study of the classics led to a vast +number of translations, and it so happened that one of the +translators deserves as a prose writer a rank among the highest. +Many of the authors already mentioned contributed to the +literature of translation. Des Periers translated the Platonic +dialogue <i>Lysis</i>, la Boétie some works of Xenophon and Plutarch, +du Vair the <i>De corona</i>, the <i>In Ctesiphontem</i> and the <i>Pro Milone</i>. +Salel attempted the <i>Iliad</i>, Belleau the false <i>Anacreon</i>, Baïf some +plays of Plautus and Terence. Besides these Lefèvre d’Étaples +gave a version of the Bible, Saliat one of Herodotus, and Louis +Leroi (1510-1577), not to be confounded with the part author +of the <i>Ménippée</i>, many works of Plato, Aristotle and other Greek +writers. But while most if not all of these translators owed the +merits of their work to their originals, and deserved, much more +deserve, to be read only by those to whom those originals are +<span class="sidenote">Amyot.</span> +sealed, Jacques Amyot (1513-1593), bishop of Auxerre, +takes rank as a French classic by his translations +of Plutarch, Longus and Heliodorus. The admiration which +Amyot excited in his own time was immense. Montaigne +declares that it was thanks to him that his contemporaries +knew how to speak and to write, and the Academy in the next +age, though not too much inclined to honour its predecessors, +ranked him as a model. His Plutarch, which had an enormous +influence at the time, and coloured perhaps more than any +classic the thoughts and writings of the 16th century, both in +French and English, was then considered his masterpiece. Nowadays +perhaps, and from the purely literary standpoint, that +position would be assigned to his exquisite version of the exquisite +story of Daphnis and Chloe. It is needless to say +that absolute fidelity and exact scholarship are not the pre-eminent +merits of these versions. They are not philological +exercises, but works of art.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Claude Fauchet (1530-1601) in two antiquarian +works, <i>Antiquités gauloises et françoises</i> and <i>L’Origine de +la langue et de la poésie française</i>, displays a remarkable critical +faculty in sweeping away the fables which had encumbered +history. Fauchet had the (for his time) wonderful habit of +consulting manuscripts, and we owe to him literary notices of +many of the trouvères. At the same time François Grudé, sieur +de la Croix du Maine (1552-1592), and Antoine Duverdier +(1544-1600) founded the study of bibliography in France. +Pasquier’s <i>Recherches</i>, already alluded to, carries out the principles +of Fauchet independently, and besides treating the history +of the past in a true critical spirit, supplies us with voluminous +and invaluable information on contemporary politics and literature. +He has, moreover, the merit which Fauchet had not, of +being an excellent writer. Henri Estienne [Stephanus] (1528-1598) +also deserves notice in this place, both for certain treatises +on the French language, full of critical crotchets, and also for +his curious <i>Apologie pour Hérodote</i>, a remarkable book not +particularly easy to class. It consists partly of a defence of its +nominal subject, partly of satirical polemics on the Protestant +side, and is filled almost equally with erudition and with the +buffoonery and <i>fatrasie</i> of the time. The book, indeed, was +much too Rabelaisian to suit the tastes of those in whose defence +it was composed.</p> + +<p>The 16th century is somewhat too early for us to speak of +science, and such science as was then composed falls for the +most part outside French literature. The famous potter, +Bernard Palissy (1510-1590), however, was not much less +skilful as a fashioner of words than as a fashioner of pots, and +his description of the difficulties of his experiments in enamelling, +which lasted sixteen years, is well known. The great surgeon +Ambrose Paré (<i>c.</i> 1510-1590) was also a writer, and his descriptions +of his military experiences at Turin, Metz and elsewhere +have all the charm of the 16th-century memoir. The only other +writers who require special mention are Olivier de Serres (1539-1619), +who composed, under the title of <i>Théâtre d’agriculture</i>, a +complete treatise on the various operations of rural economy, +and Jacques du Fouilloux (1521-1580), who wrote on hunting +(<i>La Vénerie</i>). Both became extremely popular and were frequently +reprinted.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Poetry.</i>—It is not always easy or possible to make +the end or the beginning of a literary epoch synchronize exactly +with historical dates. It happens, however, that for +once the beginning of the 17th century coincides +<span class="sidenote">Malherbe.</span> +almost exactly with an entire revolution in French literature. +The change of direction and of critical standard given by François +de Malherbe (1556-1628) to poetry was to last for two whole +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>128</span> +centuries, and to determine, not merely the language and complexion, +but also the form of French verse during the whole of that +time. Accidentally, or as a matter of logical consequence (it +would not be proper here to attempt to decide the question), +poetry became almost synonymous with drama. It is true, +as we shall have to point out, that there were, in the early part +of the 17th century at least, poets, properly so called, of no contemptible +merit. But their merit, in itself respectable, sank in +comparison with the far greater merit of their dramatic rivals. +Théophile de Viau and Racan, Voiture and Saint-Amant cannot +for a moment be mentioned in the same rank with Corneille. +It is certainly curious, if it is not something more than curious, +that this decline in poetry proper should have coincided with the +so-called reforms of Malherbe. The tradition of respect for this +elder and more gifted Boileau was at one time all-powerful in +France, and, notwithstanding the Romantic movement, is still +strong. In rejecting a large number of the importations of the +Ronsardists, he certainly did good service. But it is difficult to +avoid ascribing in great measure to his influence the origin of +the chief faults of modern French poetry, and modern French +in general, as compared with the older language. He pronounced +against “poetic diction” as such, forbade the overlapping +(<i>enjambement</i>) of verse, insisted that the middle pause should be +of sense as well as sound, and that rhyme must satisfy eye as +well as ear. Like Pope, he sacrificed everything to “correctness,” +and, unluckily for French, the sacrifice was made at a time when +no writer of an absolutely supreme order had yet appeared in the +language. With Shakespeare and Milton, not to mention scores +of writers only inferior to them, safely garnered, Pope and his +followers could do us little harm. Corneille and Molière unfortunately +came after Malherbe. Yet it would be unfair to this writer, +however badly we may think of his influence, to deny him talent, +and even a certain amount of poetical inspiration. He had not +felt his own influence, and the very influences which he despised +and proscribed produced in him much tolerable and some admirable +verse, though he is not to be named as a poet with Regnier, +who had the courage, the sense and the good taste to oppose +and ridicule his innovations. Of Malherbe’s school, Honorat de +Bueil, marquis de Racan (1589-1670), and François de Maynard +(1582-1646) were the most remarkable. The former was a true +poet, though not a very strong one. Like his master, he is best +when he follows the models whom that master contemned. +Perhaps more than any other poet, he set the example of the +classical alexandrine, the smooth and melodious but monotonous +and rather effeminate measure which Racine was to bring to the +highest perfection, and which his successors, while they could not +improve its smoothness, were to make more and more monotonous +until the genius of Victor Hugo once more broke up its facile +polish, supplied its stiff uniformity, and introduced vigour, +variety, colour and distinctness in the place of its feeble sameness +and its pale indecision. But the vigour, not to say the licence, +of the 16th century could not thus die all at once. In Théophile +de Viau (1591-1626) the early years of the 17th century had their +Villon. The later poet was almost as unfortunate as the earlier, +and almost as disreputable, but he had a great share of poetical +and not a small one of critical power. The <i>étoile enragée</i> under +which he complains that he was born was at least kind to him +in this respect; and his readers, after he had been forgotten for +two centuries, have once more done him justice. Racan and +Théophile were followed in the second quarter of the century +by two schools which sufficiently well represented the tendencies +of each. The first was that of Vincent Voiture (1598-1648), +Isaac de Benserade (1612-1691), and other poets such as Claude +de Maleville (1597-1647), author of <i>La Belle Matineuse</i>, who were +connected more or less with the famous literary coterie of the +Hôtel de Rambouillet. Théophile was less worthily succeeded by +a class, it can hardly be called a school of poets, some of whom, +like Gérard Saint-Amant (1594-1660), wrote drinking songs +of merit and other light pieces; others, like Paul Scarron (1610-1660) +and Sarrasin (1603? 4? 5?-1654), devoted themselves +rather to burlesque of serious verse. Most of the great dramatic +authors of the time also wrote miscellaneous poetry, and there +was even an epic school of the most singular kind, in ridiculing +and discrediting which Boileau for once did undoubtedly good +service. The <i>Pucelle</i> of Jean Chapelain (1595-1674), the unfortunate +author who was deliberately trained and educated for a +poet, who enjoyed for some time a sort of dictatorship in French +literature on the strength of his forthcoming work, and at whom +from the day of its publication every critic of French literature +has agreed to laugh, was the most famous and perhaps the worst +of these. But Georges de Scudéry (1601-1667) wrote an <i>Alaric</i>, +the Père le Moyne (1602-1671) a <i>Saint Louis</i>, Jean Desmarets +de Saint-Sorlin (1595-1676), a dramatist and critic of some note, +a <i>Clovis</i>, and Saint-Amant a <i>Moïse</i>, which were not much better, +though Théophile Gautier in his <i>Grotesques</i> has valiantly defended +these and other contemporary versifiers. And indeed it cannot +be denied that even the epics, especially <i>Saint Louis</i>, contain +flashes of finer poetry than France was to produce for more than +a century outside of the drama. Some of the lighter poets and +classes of poetry just alluded to also produced some remarkable +verse. The <i>Précieuses</i> of the Hôtel Rambouillet, with all their +absurdities, encouraged if they did not produce good literary +work. In their society there is no doubt that a great reformation +of manners took place, if not of morals, and that the tendency +to literature elegant and polished, yet not destitute of vigour, +which marks the 17th century, was largely developed side by +side with much scandal-mongering and anecdotage. Many of the +authors whom these influences inspired, such as Voiture, Saint-Évremond +and others, have been or will be noticed. But even +such poets and wits as Antoine Baudouin de Sénecé (1643-1737), +Jean de Segrais (1624-1701), Charles Faulure de Ris, sieur de +Charleval (1612-1693), Antoine Godeau (1605-1672), Jean Ogier +de Gombaud (1590-1666), are not without interest in the history +of literature; while if Charles Cotin (1604-1682) sinks below this +level and deserves Molière’s caricature of him as Trissotin in +<i>Les Femmes savantes</i>, Gilles de Ménage (1630-1692) certainly +rises above it, notwithstanding the companion satire of Vadius. +Ménage’s name naturally suggests the <i>Ana</i> which arose at this +time and were long fashionable, stores of endless gossip, sometimes +providing instruction and often amusement. The <i>Guirlande +de Julie</i>, in which most of the poets of the time celebrated +Julie d’Angennes, daughter of the marquise de Rambouillet, is +perhaps the best of all such albums, and Voiture, the typical poet +of the coterie, was certainly the best writer of <i>vers de société</i> +who is known to us. The poetical war which arose between the +Uranistes, the followers of Voiture, and the Jobistes, those of +Benserade, produced reams of sonnets, epigrams and similar +verses. This habit of occasional versification continued long. +It led as a less important consequence to the rhymed <i>Gazettes</i> of +Jean Loret (d. 1665), which recount in octosyllabic verse of a +light and lively kind the festivals and court events of the early +years of Louis XIV. It led also to perhaps the most remarkable +non-dramatic poetry of the century, the <i>Contes</i> and <i>Fables</i> of +Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695). No French writer is better +known than la Fontaine, and there is no need to dilate on his +merits. It has been well said that he completes Molière, and that +the two together give something to French literature which no +other literature possesses. Yet la Fontaine is after all only a +writer of fabliaux, in the language and with the manners of his +own century.</p> + +<p>All the writers we have mentioned belong more or less to the +first half of the century, and so do Valentin Conrart (1603-1675), +Antoine Furetière (1626-1688), Chapelle (Claude Emmanuel) +l’Huillier (1626-1686), and others not worth special mention. +The latter half of the century is far less productive, and the +poetical quality of its production is even lower than the quantity. +In it Boileau (1636-1711) is the chief poetical figure. Next to +him can only be mentioned Madame Deshoulières (1638-1694), +Guillaume de Brébeuf (1618-1661), the translator of Lucan, +Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), the composer of opera libretti. +Boileau’s satire, where it has much merit, is usually borrowed +direct from Horace. He had a certain faculty as a critic of the +slashing order, and might have profitably used it if he had written +in prose. But of his poetry it must be said, not so much that it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>129</span> +bad, as that it is not, in strictness, poetry at all, and the same +is generally true of all those who followed him.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Drama.</i>—We have already seen how the medieval +theatre was formed, and how in the second half of the 16th century +it met with a formidable rival in the classical drama of Jodelle +and Garnier. In 1588 mysteries had been prohibited, and with +the prohibition of the mysteries the Confraternity of the Passion +lost the principal part of its reason for existence. The other +bodies and societies of amateur actors had already perished, and +at length the Hôtel de Bourgogne itself, the home of the confraternity, +had been handed over to a regular troop of actors, +while companies of strollers, whose life has been vividly depicted +in the <i>Roman comique</i> of Scarron and the <i>Capitaine Fracasse</i> +of Théophile Gautier, wandered all about the provinces. The old +farce was for a time maintained or revived by Tabarin, a remarkable +figure in dramatic history, of whom but little is known. +The great dramatic author of the first quarter of the 17th century +was Alexandre Hardy (1569-1631), who surpassed even Heywood +<span class="sidenote">Hardy.</span> +in fecundity, and very nearly approached the portentous +productiveness of Lope de Vega. Seven +hundred is put down as the modest total of Hardy’s pieces, but +not much more than a twentieth of these exist in print. From +these latter we can judge Hardy. They are hardly up to the +level of the worst specimens of the contemporary Elizabethan +theatre, to which, however, they bear a certain resemblance. +Marston’s <i>Insatiate Countess</i> and the worst parts of Chapman’s +<i>Bussy d’Ambois</i> may give English readers some notion of them. +Yet Hardy was not totally devoid of merit. He imitated and +adapted Spanish literature, which was at this time to France +what Italian was in the century before and English in the century +after, in the most indiscriminate manner. But he had a considerable +command of grandiloquent and melodramatic expression, +a sound theory if not a sound practice of tragic writing, and that +peculiar knowledge of theatrical art and of the taste of the +theatrical public which since his time has been the special possession +of the French playwright. It is instructive to compare the +influence of his irregular and faulty genius with that of the regular +and precise Malherbe. From Hardy to Rotrou is, in point of +literary interest, a great step, and from Rotrou to Corneille a +greater. Yet the theory of Hardy only wanted the genius of +Rotrou and Corneille to produce the latter. Jean de Rotrou +(1610-1650) has been called the French Marlowe, and there is +<span class="sidenote">Rotrou.</span> +a curious likeness and yet a curious contrast between +the two poets. The best parts of Rotrou’s two best +plays, <i>Venceslas</i> and <i>St Genest</i>, are quite beyond comparison +in respect of anything that preceded them, and the central +speech of the last-named play will rank with anything in +French dramatic poetry. Contemporary with Rotrou were +other dramatic writers of considerable dramatic importance, +most of them distinguished by the faults of the Spanish +school, its declamatory rodomontade, its conceits, and its +occasionally preposterous action. Jean de Schélandre (d. +1635) has left us a remarkable work in <i>Tyr et Sidon</i>, which +exemplifies in practice, as its almost more remarkable preface by +François Ogier defends in principle, the English-Spanish model. +Théophile de Viau in <i>Pyrame et Thisbé</i> and in <i>Pasiphaé</i> produced +a singular mixture of the classicism of Garnier and the extravagancies +of Hardy. Scudéry in <i>l’Amour tyrannique</i> and other +plays achieved a considerable success. The <i>Marianne</i> of Tristan +(1601-1655) and the <i>Sophonisbe</i> of Jean de Mairet (1604-1686) +are the chief pieces of their authors. Mairet resembles Marston +in something more than his choice of subject. Another dramatic +writer of some eminence is Pierre du Ryer (1606-1648). But +the fertility of France at this moment in dramatic authors +was immense; nearly 100 are enumerated in the first quarter +<span class="sidenote">Corneille.</span> +of the century. The early plays of Pierre Corneille +(1606-1684) showed all the faults of his contemporaries +combined with merits to which none of them except Rotrou, +and Rotrou himself only in part, could lay claim. His first play +was <i>Mélite</i>, a comedy, and in <i>Clitandre</i>, a tragedy, he soon produced +what may perhaps be not inconveniently taken as the +typical piece of the school of Hardy. A full account of Corneille +may be found elsewhere. It is sufficient to say here that his +importance in French literature is quite as great in the way of +influence and example as in the way of intellectual excellence. +The <i>Cid</i> and the <i>Menteur</i> are respectively the first examples of +French tragedy and comedy which can be called modern. But +this influence and example did not at first find many imitators. +Corneille was a member of Richelieu’s band of five poets. Of +the other four Rotrou alone deserves the title; the remaining +three, the prolific abbé de Boisrobert, Guillaume Colletet (whose +most valuable work, a MS. <i>Lives of Poets</i>, was never printed, and +burnt by the Communards in 1871), and Claude de Lestoile +(1597-1651), are as dramatists worthy of no notice, nor were they +soon followed by others more worthy. Yet before many years +had passed the examples which Corneille had set in tragedy and +in comedy were followed up by unquestionably the greatest comic +writer, and by one who long held the position of the greatest +tragic writer of France. Beginning with mere farces of the +Italian type, and passing from these to comedies still of an Italian +character, it was in <i>Les Précieuses ridicules</i>, acted in 1659, that +<span class="sidenote">Molière.<br /><br /> +Racine.</span> +Molière (1622-1673), in the words of a spectator, hit +at last on “la bonne comédie.” The next fifteen years +comprise the whole of his best known work, the finest expression +beyond doubt of a certain class of comedy that any literature +has produced. The tragic masterpieces of Racine +(1639-1699) were not far from coinciding with the +comic masterpieces of Molière, for, with the exception of the +remarkable aftergrowth of <i>Esther</i> and <i>Athalie</i>, they were produced +chiefly between 1667 and 1677. Both Racine and Molière fall +into the class of writers who require separate mention. Here +we can only remark that both to a certain extent committed +and encouraged a fault which distinguished much subsequent +French dramatic literature. This was the too great individualizing +of one point in a character, and the making the man or woman +nothing but a blunderer, a lover, a coxcomb, a tyrant and the +like. The very titles of French plays show this influence—they +are <i>Le Grondeur</i>, <i>Le Joueur</i>, &c. The complexity of human +character is ignored. This fault distinguishes both Molière and +Racine from writers of the very highest order; and in especial +it distinguishes the comedy of Molière and the tragedy of Racine +from the comedy and tragedy of Shakespeare. In all probability +this and other defects of the French drama (which are not wholly +apparent in the work of Molière and Corneille, are shown in +their most favourable light in those of Racine, and appear in all +their deformity in the successors of the latter) arise from the +rigid adoption of the Aristotelian theory of the drama with its +unities and other restrictions, especially as transmitted by Horace +through Boileau. This adoption was very much due to the influence +of the French Academy, which was founded unofficially +by Conrart in 1629, which received official standing six years later, +<span class="sidenote">The Academy.</span> +and which continued the tradition of Malherbe in +attempting constantly to school and correct, as the +phrase went, the somewhat disorderly instincts of +the early French stage. Even the Cid was formally censured +for irregularity by it. But it is fair to say that François Hédélin, +abbé d’Aubignac (1604-1676), whose <i>Pratique du théâtre</i> is the +most wooden of the critical treatises of the time, was not an +academician. It is difficult to say whether the subordination +of all other classes of composition to the drama, which has ever +since been characteristic of French literature, was or was not +due to the predilection of Richelieu, the main protector if not +exactly the founder of the Academy, for the theatre. Among +the immediate successors and later contemporaries of the three +great dramatists we do not find any who deserve high rank as +tragedians, though there are some whose comedies are more than +respectable. It is at least significant that the restrictions imposed +by the academic theory on the comic drama were far less +severe than those which tragedy had to undergo. The latter was +practically confined, in respect of sources of attraction, to the +dexterous manipulation of the unities; the interest of a plot +attenuated as much as possible, and intended to produce, instead +of pity a mild sympathy, and instead of terror a mild alarm +(for the purists decided against Corneille that “admiration was not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>130</span> +a tragic passion”); and lastly the composition of long tirades +of smooth but monotonous verses, arranged in couplets tipped +with delicately careful rhymes. Only Thomas Corneille (1625-1709), +the inheritor of an older tradition and of a great name, +deserves to be excepted from the condemnation to be passed on +the lesser tragedians of this period. He was unfortunate in +possessing his brother’s name, and in being, like him, too voluminous +in his compositions; but <i>Camma</i>, <i>Ariane</i>, <i>Le Comte d’Essex</i>, +are not tragedies to be despised. On the other hand, the names of +Jean de Campistron (1656-1723) and Nicolas Pradon (1632-1698) +mainly serve to point injurious comparisons; Joseph François +Duché (1668-1704) and Antoine La Fosse (1653-1708) are of still +less importance, and Quinault’s tragedies are chiefly remarkable +because he had the good sense to give up writing them and to +take to opera. The general excellence of French comedy, on the +other hand, was sufficiently vindicated. Besides the splendid +sum of Molière’s work, the two great tragedians had each, in +<i>Le Menteur</i> and <i>Les Plaideurs</i>, set a capital example to their +successors, which was fairly followed. David Augustin de +Brueys (1640-1723) and Jean Palaprat (1650-1721) brought out +once more the ever new <i>Advocat Patelin</i> besides the capital +<i>Grondeur</i> already referred to. Quinault and Campistron wrote +fair comedies. Florent Carton Dancourt (1661-1726), Charles +Rivière Dufresny (<i>c.</i> 1654-1724), Edmond Boursault (1638-1701), +were all comic writers of considerable merit. But the chief comic +dramatist of the latter period of the 17th century was Jean +François Regnard (1655-1709), whose <i>Joueur</i> and <i>Légataire</i> +are comedies almost of the first rank.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Fiction.</i>—In the department of literature which +comes between poetry and prose, that of romance-writing, +the 17th century, excepting one remarkable development, +was not very fertile. It devoted itself to so +<span class="sidenote">Heroic Romance.</span> +many new or changed forms of literature that it had no +time to anticipate the modern novel. Yet at the beginning +of the century one very curious form of romance-writing was +diligently cultivated, and its popularity, for the time immense, +prevented the introduction of any stronger style. It is remarkable +that, as the first quarter of the 17th century was pre-eminently +the epoch of Spanish influence in France, the distinctive +satire of Cervantes should have been less imitated than the +models which Cervantes satirized. However this may be, the +romances of 1600 to 1650 form a class of literature vast, isolated, +and, perhaps, of all such classes of literature most utterly +obsolete and extinct. Taste, affectation or antiquarian diligence +have, at one time or another, restored to a just, and sometimes +a more than just, measure of reputation most of the literary +relics of the past. Romances of chivalry, fabliaux, early drama, +Provençal poetry, prose chronicles, have all had, and deservedly, +their rehabilitators. But <i>Polexandre</i> and <i>Cléopâtre</i>, <i>Clélie</i> and +the <i>Grand Cyrus</i>, have been too heavy for all the industry and +energy of literary antiquarians. As we have already hinted, +the nearest ancestry which can be found for them is the romances +of the <i>Amadis</i> type. But the <i>Amadis</i>, and in a less degree its +followers, although long, are long in virtue of incident. The +romances of the <i>Clélie</i> type are long in virtue of interminable +discourse, moralizing and description. Their manner is not +unlike that of the <i>Arcadia</i> and the <i>Euphues</i> which preceded them +in England; and they express in point of style the tendency +which simultaneously manifested itself all over Europe at this +period, and whose chief exponents were Gongora in Spain, +Marini in Italy, and Lyly in England. Everybody knows the +<i>Carte de Tendre</i> which originally appeared in <i>Clélie</i>, while most +people have heard of the shepherds and shepherdesses who +figure in the <i>Astrée</i> of Honoré D’Urfé (1568-1625), on the borders +of the Lignon; but here general knowledge ends, and there is +perhaps no reason why it should go much further. It is sufficient +to say that Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701) principally +devotes herself in the books above mentioned to laborious +gallantry and heroism, La Calprénède (1610-1663) in <i>Cassandre +et Cléopâtre</i> to something which might have been the historical +novel if it had been constructed on a less preposterous scale, +and Marin le Roy de Gomberville (1600-1647) in <i>Polexandre</i> +to moralizings and theological discussions on Jansenist principles, +while Pierre Camus, bishop of Belley (1582-1652), in <i>Palombe</i> +and others, approached still nearer to the strictly religious story. +In the latter part of the century, the example of La Fontaine, +though he himself wrote in poetry, helped to recall the tale-tellers +of France to an occupation more worthy of them, more +suitable to the genius of the literature, and more likely to last. +The reaction against the <i>Clélie</i> school produced first Madame de +Villedieu (Cathérine Desjardins) (1632-1692), a fluent and +facile novelist, who enjoyed great but not enduring popularity. +The form which the prose tale took at this period was that of +the fairy story. Perrault (1628-1703) and Madame d’Aulnoy +(d. 1705) composed specimens of this kind which have never ceased +to be popular since. Hamilton (1646-1720), the author of the +well-known <i>Mémoires du comte de Gramont</i>, wrote similar stories +of extraordinary merit in style and ingenuity. There is yet a +third class of prose writing which deserves to be mentioned. It +also may probably be traced to Spanish influence, that is to say, +to the picaresque romances which the 16th and 17th centuries +produced in Spain in large numbers. The most remarkable +example of this is the <i>Roman comique</i> of the burlesque writer +Scarron. The <i>Roman bourgeois</i> of Antoine Furetière (1619-1688) +also deserves mention as a collection of pictures of the life of the +time, arranged in the most desultory manner, but drawn with +great vividness, observation and skill. A remarkable writer who +had great influence on Molière has also to be mentioned in this +connexion rather than in any other. This is Cyrano de Bergerac +(1619-1655), who, besides composing doubtful comedies and +tragedies, writing political pamphlets, and exercising the task +of literary criticism in objecting to Scarron’s burlesques, produced +in his <i>Histoires comiques des états et empires de la lune et du soleil</i>, +half romantic and half satirical compositions, in which some +have seen the original of <i>Gulliver’s Travels</i>, in which others have +discovered only a not very successful imitation of Rabelais, +and which, without attempting to decide these questions, may +fairly be ranked in the same class of fiction with the masterpieces +of Swift and Rabelais, though of course at an immense distance +below them. One other work, and in literary influence perhaps +the most remarkable of its kind in the century, remains. Madame +de Lafayette, Marie de la Vergne (1634-1692), the friend of La +Rochefoucauld and of Madame de Sévigné, though she did not +exactly anticipate the modern novel, showed the way to it in +her stories, the principal of which are <i>Zaïde</i> and still more La +<i>Princesse de Clèves</i>. The latter, though a long way from <i>Manon</i> +<i>Lescaut</i>, <i>Clarissa</i>, or <i>Tom Jones</i>, is a longer way still from <i>Polexandre</i> +or the <i>Arcadia</i>. The novel becomes in it no longer a more +or less fictitious chronicle, but an attempt at least at the display +of character. <i>La Princesse de Clèves</i> has never been one of the +works widely popular out of their own country, nor perhaps +does it deserve such popularity, for it has more grace than +strength; but as an original effort in an important direction +its historical value is considerable. But with this exception, +the art of fictitious prose composition, except on a small scale, +is certainly not one in which the century excelled, nor are any +of the masterpieces which it produced to be ranked in this class.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Prose.</i>—If, however, this was the case, it cannot +be said that French prose as a whole was unproductive at this +time. On the contrary, it was now, and only now, +that it attained the strength and perfection for which +<span class="sidenote">J. G. de Balzac and modern French prose.</span> +it has been so long renowned, and which has perhaps, +by a curious process of compensation, somewhat +deteriorated since the restoration of poetry proper +in France. The prose Malherbe of French literature was Jean +Guez de Balzac (1594-1654). The writers of the 17th century +had practically created the literary language of prose, but they +had not created a prose style. The charm of Rabelais, of Amyot, +of Montaigne, and of the numerous writers of tales and memoirs +whom we have noticed, was a charm of exuberance, of naïveté, +of picturesque effect—in short, of a mixture of poetry and prose, +rather than of prose proper. Sixteenth-century French prose +is a delightful instrument in the hands of men and women of +genius, but in the hands of those who have not genius it is full +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>131</span> +of defects, and indeed is nearly unreadable. Now, prose is +essentially an instrument of all work. The poet who has not +genius had better not write at all; the prose writer often may +and sometimes must dispense with this qualification. He has +need, therefore, of a suitable machine to help him to perform +his task, and this machine it is the glory of Balzac to have done +more than any other person to create. He produced himself +no great work, his principal writings being letters, a few discourses +and dissertations, and a work entitled <i>Le Socrate chrétien</i>, a +sort of treatise on political theology. But if the matter of his +work is not of the first importance, its manner is of a very different +value. Instead of the endless diffuseness of the preceding century, +its ill-formed or rather unformed sentences, and its haphazard +periods, we find clauses, sentences and paragraphs distinctly +planned, shaped and balanced, a cadence introduced which is +rhythmical but not metrical, and, in short, prose which is written +knowingly instead of the prose which is unwittingly talked. +It has been well said of him that he “<i>écrit pour écrire</i>”; and +such a man, it is evident, if he does nothing else, sets a valuable +example to those who write because they have something to say. +Voiture seconded Balzac without much intending to do so. +His prose style, also chiefly contained in letters, is lighter than +that of his contemporary, and helped to gain for French prose +the tradition of vivacity and sparkle which it has always +possessed, as well as that of correctness and grace.</p> + +<p><i>17th-century History.</i>—In historical composition, especially +in the department of memoirs, this period was exceedingly rich. +At last there was written, in French, an entire history of France. +The author was François Eudes de Mézeray (1610-1683), whose +work, though not exhibiting the perfection of style at which some +of his contemporaries had already arrived, and though still more +or less uncritical, yet deserves the title of history. The example +was followed by a large number of writers, some of extended +works, some of histories in part. Mézeray himself is said to +have had a considerable share in the <i>Histoire du roi Henri le +grand</i> by the archbishop Péréfixe (1605-1670); Louis Maimbourg +(1610-1686) wrote histories of the Crusades and of the League; +Paul Pellisson (1624-1693) gave a history of Louis XIV. and a +more valuable <i>Mémoire</i> in defence of the superintendent Fouquet. +Still later in the century, or at the beginning of the next, the +Père d’Orléans (1644-1698) wrote a history of the revolutions +of England, the Père Daniel (1649-1728), like d’Orléans a +Jesuit, composed a lengthy history of France and a shorter one +on the French military forces. Finally, at the end of the period, +comes the great ecclesiastical history of Claude Fleury (1640-1723), +a work which perhaps belongs more to the section of +erudition than to that of history proper. Three small treatises, +however, composed by different authors towards the middle +part of the century, supply remarkable instances of prose style +in its application to history. These are the <i>Conjurations du +comte de Fiesque</i>, written by the famous Cardinal de Retz +(1613-1679), the <i>Conspiration de Walstein</i> of Sarrasin, and the +<i>Conjuration des Espagnols contre Venise</i>, composed in 1672 +by the abbé de Saint-Réal (1639-1692), the author of various +historical and critical works deserving less notice. These three +works, whose similarity of subject and successive composition +at short intervals leave little doubt that a certain amount of +intentional rivalry animated the two later authors, are among +the earliest and best examples of the monographs for which +French, in point of grace of style and lucidity of exposition, +has long been the most successful vehicle of expression among +European languages. Among other writers of history, as +distinguished from memoirs, need only be noticed Agrippa +d’Aubigné, whose <i>Histoire universelle</i> closed his long and varied +list of works, and Varillas (1624-1696), a historian chiefly +remarkable for his extreme untrustworthiness. In point of +memoirs and correspondence the period is hardly less fruitful +than that which preceded it. The <i>Régistres-Journaux</i> of Pierre +de l’Étoile (1540-1611) consist of a diary something of the Pepys +character, kept for nearly forty years by a person in high official +employment. The memoirs of Sully (1560-1641), published +under a curious title too long to quote, date also from this time.</p> + +<p>Henri IV. himself has left a considerable correspondence, +which is not destitute of literary merit, though not equal to the +memoirs of his wife. What are commonly called Richelieu’s +<i>Memoirs</i> were probably written to his order; his <i>Testament +politique</i> may be his own. Henri de Rohan (1579-1638) has not +memoirs of the first value. Both this and earlier times found +chronicle in the singular <i>Historiettes</i> of Gédéon Tallemant des +Réaux (1619-1690), a collection of anecdotes, frequently scandalous, +reaching from the times of Henri IV. to those of Louis XIV., +to which may be joined the letters of Guy Patin (1602-1676). +The early years of the latter monarch and the period of the +Fronde had the cardinal de Retz himself, than whom no one +was certainly better qualified for historian, not to mention a +crowd of others, of whom we may mention Madame de Motteville +(1621-1689), Jean Hérault de Gourville (1625-1703), +Mademoiselle de Montpensier (“La Grande Mademoiselle”) +(1627-1693), Conrart, Turenne and Mathieu Molé (1584-1663), +François du Val, marquis de Fontenay-Mareuil (1594-1655), +Arnauld d’Andilly (1588-1670). From this time memoirs and +memoir writers were ever multiplying. The queen of them +all is Madame de Sevigné (1626-1696), on whom, as on most of +the great and better-known writers whom we have had and shall +have to mention, it is impossible here to dwell at length. The +last half of the century produced crowds of similar but inferior +writers. The memoirs of Roger de Bussy-Rabutin (1618-1693) +(author of a kind of scandalous chronicle called <i>Histoire amoureuse +des Gaules</i>) and of Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719) +perhaps deserve notice above the others. But this was in truth +the style of composition in which the age most excelled. Memoir-writing +became the occupation not so much of persons who +made history, as was the case from Comines to Retz, as of those +who, having culture, leisure and opportunity of observation, +devoted themselves to the task of recording the deeds of others, +and still more of regarding the incidents of the busy, splendid +and cultivated if somewhat frivolous world of the court, in which, +from the time of Louis XIV.’s majority, the political life of the +nation and almost its whole history were centred. Many, if not +most, of these writers were women, who thus founded the celebrity +of the French lady for managing her mother-tongue, +and justified by results the taste and tendencies of the blue-stockings +and précieuses of the Hôtel Rambouillet and similar +coteries. The life which these writers saw before them furnished +them with a subject to be handled with the minuteness and care +to which they had been accustomed in the ponderous romances +of the <i>Clélie</i> type, but also with the wit and terseness hereditary +in France, and only temporarily absent in those ponderous +compositions. The efforts of Balzac and the Academy supplied +a suitable language and style, and the increasing tendency +towards epigrammatic moralizing, which reached its acme +in La Rochefoucauld (1663-1680) and La Bruyère (1639-1696), +added in most cases point and attractiveness to their writings.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Philosophers and Theologians.</i>—To these moralists +we might, perhaps, not inappropriately pass at once. But it +seems better to consider first the philosophical and +theological developments of the age, which must share +<span class="sidenote">Descartes.</span> +with its historical experiences and studies the credit of producing +these writers. Philosophy proper, as we have already had +occasion to remark, had hitherto made no use of the vulgar +tongue. The 16th century had contributed a few vernacular +treatises on logic, a considerable body of political and ethical +writing, and a good deal of sceptical speculation of a more or +less vague character, continued into our present epoch by such +writers as François de la Mothe le Vayer (1588-1672), the last +representative of the orthodox doubt of Montaigne and Charron. +But in metaphysics proper it had not dabbled. The 17th century, +on the contrary, was to produce in René Descartes (1596-1650), at +once a master of prose style, the greatest of French philosophers, +and one of the greatest metaphysicians, not merely of France +and of the 17th century, but of all countries and times. Even +before Descartes there had been considerable and important +developments of metaphysical speculation in France. The first +eminent philosopher of French birth was Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>132</span> +Gassendi devoted himself to the maintenance of a +modernized form of the Epicurean doctrines, but he wrote mainly, +if not entirely, in Latin. Another sceptical philosopher of a less +scientific character was the physicist Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653), +who, like many others of the philosophers of the time, was +accused of atheism. But as none of these could approach +Descartes in philosophical power and originality, so also none +has even a fraction of his importance in the history of French +literature. Descartes stands with Plato, and possibly Berkeley +and Malebranche, at the head of all philosophers in respect of +style; and in his case the excellence is far more remarkable +than in others, inasmuch as he had absolutely no models, and +was forced in a great degree to create the language which he +used. The <i>Discours de la méthode</i> is not only one of the epoch-making +books of philosophy, it is also one of the epoch-making +books of French style. The tradition of his clear and perfect +expression was taken up, not merely by his philosophical disciples, +but also by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) and the school of +Port Royal, who will be noticed presently. The very genius +of the Cartesian philosophy was intimately connected with +this clearness, distinctness and severity of style; and there is +something more than a fanciful contrast between these literary +characteristics of Descartes, on the one hand, and the elaborate +splendour of Bacon, the knotty and crabbed strength of Hobbes, +and the commonplace and almost vulgar slovenliness of Locke. +Of the followers of Descartes, putting aside the Port Royalists, +by far the most distinguished, both in philosophy and in literature, +<span class="sidenote">Malebranche.</span> +is Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715). His <i>Recherche +de la vérité</i>, admirable as it is for its subtlety and its +consecutiveness of thought, is equally admirable for +its elegance of style. Malebranche cannot indeed, like his great +master, claim absolute originality. But his excellence as a +writer is as great as, if not greater than, that of Descartes, and the +<i>Recherche</i> remains to this day the one philosophical treatise of +great length and abstruseness which, merely as a book, is delightful +to read—not like the works of Plato and Berkeley, because +of the adventitious graces of dialogue or description, but from +the purity and grace of the language, and its admirable adjustment +to the purposes of the argument. Yet, for all this, philosophy +hardly flourished in France. It was too intimately +connected with theological and ecclesiastical questions, and +especially with Jansenism, to escape suspicion and persecution. +Descartes himself was for much of his life an exile in Holland +and Sweden; and though the unquestionable orthodoxy of +Malebranche, the strongly religious cast of his works, and the +remoteness of the abstruse region in which he sojourned from +that of the controversies of the day, protected him, other followers +of Descartes were not so fortunate. Holland, indeed, became +a kind of city of refuge for students of philosophy, though even +in Holland itself they were by no means entirely safe from +persecution. By far the most remarkable of French philosophical +<span class="sidenote">Bayle.</span> +sojourners in the Netherlands was Pierre Bayle +(1647-1706), a name not perhaps of the first rank in +respect of literary value, but certainly of the first as regards +literary influence. Bayle, after oscillating between the two +confessions, nominally remained a Protestant in religion. In +philosophy he in the same manner oscillated between Descartes +and Gassendi, finally resting in an equally nominal Cartesianism. +Bayle was, in fact, both in philosophy and in religion, merely +a sceptic, with a scepticism at once like and unlike that of +Montaigne, and differenced both by temperament and by circumstance—the +scepticism of the mere student, exercised more or +less in all histories, sciences and philosophies, and intellectually +unable or unwilling to take a side. His style is hardly to be called +good, being diffuse and often inelegant. But his great dictionary, +though one of the most heterogeneous and unmethodical of +compositions, exercised an enormous influence. It may be +called the Bible of the 18th century, and contains in the germ +all the desultory philosophy, the ill-ordered scepticism, and the +critical but negatively critical acuteness of the <i>Aufklärung</i>.</p> + +<p>We have said that the philosophical, theological and moral +tendencies of the century, which produced, with the exception +of its dramatic triumphs, all its greatest literary works, are almost +inextricably intermingled. Its earliest years, however, bear +<span class="sidenote">Jansenists.</span> +in theological matters rather the complexion of the +previous century. Du Perron and St Francis of Sales +survived until nearly the end of its first quarter, and the +most remarkable works of the latter bear the dates of 1608 and +later. It was not, however, till some years had passed, till the +counter-Reformation had reconverted the largest and most +powerful portion of the Huguenot party, and till the influence of +Jansenius and Descartes had time to work, that the extraordinary +outburst of Gallican theology, both in pulpit and in press, took +place. The Jansenist controversy may perhaps be awarded the +merit of provoking this, as far as writing was concerned. The +astonishing eloquence of contemporary pulpit oratory may be set +down partly to the zeal for conversion of which du Perron and +de Sales had given the example, partly to the same taste of the +time which encouraged dramatic performances, for the sermon +and the tirade have much in common. Jansenius himself, though +a Dutchman by birth, passed much time in France, and it was +in France that he found most disciples. These disciples consisted +in the first place of the members of the society of Port Royal +des Champs, a coterie after the fashion of the time, but one which +devoted itself not to sonnets or madrigals but to devotional +exercises, study and the teaching of youth. This coterie early +<span class="sidenote">Port Royal.<br /><br /> +Pascal.</span> +adopted the Cartesian philosophy, and the Port Royal +<i>Logic</i> was the most remarkable popular handbook +of that school. In theology they adopted Jansenism, +and were in consequence soon at daggers drawn with the Jesuits, +according to the polemical habits of the time. The most distinguished +champions on the Jansenist side were Jean Duvergier +de Hauranne, abbé de St Cyran (1581-1643), and Antoine Arnauld +(1560-1619), but by far the most important literary results of the +quarrel were the famous <i>Provinciales</i> of Pascal, or, to give them +their proper title, <i>Lettres écrites à un provincial</i>. +Their literary importance consists, not merely in their +grace of style, but in the application to serious discussion of the +peculiarly polished and quiet irony of which Pascal is the greatest +master the world has ever seen. Up to this time controversy had +usually been conducted either in the mere bludgeon fashion of +the Scaligers and Saumaises—of which in the vernacular the +Jesuit François Garasse (1585-1631) had already contributed +remarkable examples to literary and moral controversy—or else +in a dull and legal style, or lastly under an envelope of Rabelaisian +buffoonery such as survives to a considerable extent in the +<i>Satire Ménippée</i>. Pascal set the example of combining the use +of the most terribly effective weapons with good humour, good +breeding and a polished style. The example was largely +followed, and the manner of Voltaire and his followers in the 18th +century owes at least as much to Pascal as their method and +matter do to Bayle. The Jansenists, attacked and persecuted by +the civil power, which the Jesuits had contrived to interest, +were finally suppressed. But the <i>Provinciales</i> had given them +an unapproachable superiority in matter of argument and +literature. Their other literary works were inferior, though still +remarkable. Antoine Arnauld (the younger, often called “the +great”) (1612-1694) and Pierre Nicole (1625-1695) managed +their native language with vigour if not exactly with grace. +They maintained their orthodoxy by writings, not merely against +the Jesuits, but also against the Protestants such as the <i>Perpétuité +de la foi</i> due to both, and the <i>Apologie des Catholiques</i> +written by Arnauld alone. The latter, besides being responsible +for a good deal of the <i>Logic</i> (<i>L’Art de penser</i>) to which we have +alluded, wrote also much of a <i>Grammaire générale</i> composed +by the Port Royalists for the use of their pupils; but his principal +devotion was to theology and theological polemics. To the latter +Nicole also contributed <i>Les Visionnaires</i>, <i>Les Imaginaires</i> and +other works. The studious recluses of Port Royal also produced +a large quantity of miscellaneous literary work, to which full +justice has been done in Sainte-Beuve’s well-known volumes.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Preachers.</i>—When we think of Gallican theology +during the 17th century, it is always with the famous pulpit +orators of the period that thought is most busied. Nor is this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>133</span> +unjust, for though the most prominent of them all, Jacques +Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) was remarkable as a writer of +matter intended to be read, not merely as a speaker of matter +intended to be heard, this double character is not possessed +by most of the orthodox theologians of the time; and even +Bossuet, great as is his genius, is more of a rhetorician than of a +philosopher or a theologian. In no quarter was the advance of +culture more remarkable in France than in the pulpit. We have +already had occasion to notice the characteristics of French pulpit +eloquence in the 15th and 16th centuries. Though this was very +far from destitute of vigour and imagination, the political frenzy +of the preachers, and the habit of introducing anecdotic buffoonery, +spoilt the eloquence of Maillard and of Raulin, of +Boucher and of Rose. The powerful use which the Reformed +ministers made of the pulpit stirred up their rivals; the advance +in science and classical study added weight and dignity to the +matter of their discourses. The improvement of prose style and +language provided them with a suitable instrument, and the +growth of taste and refinement purged their sermons of grossness +and buffoonery, of personal allusions, and even, as the monarchy +became more absolute, of direct political purpose. The earliest +examples of this improved style were given by St Francis de +Sales and by Fenouillet, bishop of Marseilles (d. 1652); but it +was not till the latter half of the century, when the troubles of +the Fronde had completely subsided, and the church was established +in the favour of Louis XIV., that the full efflorescence of +theological eloquence took place. There were at the time pulpit +orators of considerable excellence in England, and perhaps +Jeremy Taylor, assisted by the genius of the language, has +wrought a vein more precious than any which the somewhat +academic methods and limitations of the French teachers +allowed them to reach. But no country has ever been able +to show a more magnificent concourse of orators, sacred or +profane, than that formed by Bossuet, Fénelon (1651-1715), +Esprit Fléchier (1632-1710), Jules Mascaron (1634-1703), +Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704), and Jean Baptiste Massillon +(1663-1742), to whom may be justly added the Protestant +divines, Jean Claude (1619-1687) and Jacques Saurin (1677-1730). +<span class="sidenote">Bossuet.</span> +The characteristics of all these were different. Bossuet, +the earliest and certainly the greatest, was also the most +universal. He was not merely a preacher; he was, as we have +said, a controversialist, indeed somewhat too much of a controversialist, +as his battle with Fénelon proved. He was a +philosophical or at least a theological historian, and his <i>Discours +sur l’histoire universelle</i> is equally remarkable from the point of +view of theology, philosophy, history and literature. Turning +to theological politics, he wrote his <i>Politique tirée de l’écriture +sainte</i>, to theology proper his <i>Méditations sur les évangiles</i> +and his <i>Élevations sur les mystères</i>. But his principal work, after +all, is his <i>Oraisons funèbres</i>. The funeral sermon was the special +oratorical exercise of the time. Its subject and character invited +the gorgeous if somewhat theatrical commonplaces, the +display of historical knowledge and parallel, and the moralizing +analogies, in which the age specially rejoiced. It must also be +noticed, to the credit of the preachers, that such occasions gave +them an opportunity, rarely neglected, of correcting the adulation +which was but too frequently characteristic of the period. The +spirit of these compositions is fairly reflected in the most famous +and often quoted of their phrases, the opening “Mes frères, Dieu +seul est grand” of Massillon’s funeral discourse on Louis XIV.; +and though panegyric is necessarily by no means absent, it is +rarely carried beyond bounds. While Bossuet made himself +chiefly remarkable in his sermons and in his writings by an +almost Hebraic grandeur and rudeness, the more special characteristics +of Christianity, largely alloyed with a Greek and Platonic +<span class="sidenote">Fénelon.</span> +spirit, displayed themselves in Fénelon. In pure +literature he is not less remarkable than in theology, +politics and morals. His practice in matters of style was admirable, +as the universally known <i>Télémaque</i> sufficiently shows to +those who know nothing else of his writing. But his taste, both +in its correctness and its audacity, is perhaps more admirable +still. Despite of Malherbe, Balzac, Boileau and the traditions +of nearly a century, he dared to speak favourably of Ronsard, +and plainly expressed his opinion that the practice of his own +contemporaries and predecessors had cramped and impoverished +the French language quite as much as they had polished or purified +it. The other doctors whom we have mentioned were more +purely theological than the accomplished archbishop of Cambray. +Fléchier is somewhat more archaic in style than Bossuet or +Fénelon, and he is also more definitely a rhetorician than either. +Mascaron has the older fault of prodigal and somewhat indiscriminate +erudition. But the two latest of the series, Bourdaloue +and Massillon, had far the greatest repute in their own time +purely as orators, and perhaps deserved this preference. The difference +between the two repeated that between du Perron and de +Sales. Bourdaloue’s great forte was vigorous argument and +unsparing denunciation, but he is said to have been lacking in +the power of influencing and affecting his hearers. His attraction +was purely intellectual, and it is reflected in his style, which is +clear and forcible, but destitute of warmth and colour. Massillon, +on the other hand, was remarkable for his pathos, and for his +power of enlisting and influencing the sympathies of his hearers. +Of minor preachers on the same side, Charles de la Rue, a Jesuit +(1643-1725), and the Père Cheminais (1652-1680), according to a +somewhat idle form of nomenclature, “the Racine of the pulpit,” +may be mentioned. The two Protestant ministers whom we +have mentioned, though inferior to their rivals, yet deserve +honourable mention among the ecclesiastical writers of the +period. Claude engaged in a controversy with Bossuet, in +which victory is claimed for the invincible eagle of Meaux. +Saurin, by far the greater preacher of the two, long continued to +occupy, and indeed still occupies, in the libraries of French +Protestants, the position given to Bossuet and Massillon on the +other side.</p> + +<p><i>17th-Century Moralists.</i>—It is not surprising that the works +of Montaigne and Charron, with the immense popularity of the +former, should have inclined the more thoughtful minds in France +to moral reflection, especially as many other influences, both +direct and indirect, contributed to produce the same result. +The constant tendency of the refinements in French prose was +towards clearness, succinctness and precision, the qualities +most necessary in the moralist. The characteristics of the +prevailing philosophy, that of Descartes, pointed in the same +direction. It so happened, too, that the times were more favourable +to the thinker and writer on ethical subjects than to the +speculator in philosophy proper, in theology or in politics. +Both the former subjects exposed their cultivators, as we have +seen, to the suspicion of unorthodoxy; and to political speculation +of any kind the rule of Richelieu, and still more that of +Louis XIV., were in the highest degree unfavourable. No +successors to Bodin and du Vair appeared; and even in the +domain of legal writings, which comes nearest to that of politics, +but few names of eminence are to be found.</p> + +<p>Only the name of Omer-Talon (1595-1652) really illustrates +the legal annals of France at this period on the bench, and that +of Olivier Patru (1604-1681) at the bar. Thus it +happened that the interests of many different classes +<span class="sidenote">Pascal and pensée-writing.</span> +of persons were concentrated upon moralizings, which +took indeed very different forms in the hands of Pascal +and other grave and serious thinkers of the Jansenist complexion +in theology, and in those of literary courtiers like Saint-Évremond +(1613-1703) and La Rochefoucauld, whose chief object was to +depict the motives and characters prominent in the brilliant +and not altogether frivolous society in which they moved. Both +classes, however, were more or less tempted by the cast of their +thoughts and the genius of the language to adopt the tersest +and most epigrammatic form of expression possible, and thus +to originate the “<i>pensée</i>” in which, as its greatest later writer, +Joubert, has said, “the ambition of the author is to put a +book into a page, a page into a phrase, and a phrase into a word.” +The great genius and admirable style of Pascal are certainly +not less shown in his <i>Pensées</i> than in his <i>Provinciales</i>, though +perhaps the literary form of the former is less strikingly supreme +than that of the latter. The author is more dominated by his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>134</span> +subject and dominates it less. Nicole, a far inferior writer as +well as thinker, has also left a considerable number of <i>Pensées</i>, +which have about them something more of the essay and less +of the aphorism. They are, however, though not comparable +to Pascal, excellent in matter and style, and go far to justify +Bayle in calling their author “l’une des plus belles plumes de +l’Europe.” In sharp contrast with these thinkers, who are +invariably not merely respecters of religion but ardently and +avowedly religious, who treat morality from the point of view +of the Bible and the church, there arose side by side with them, +or only a little later, a very different group of moralists, whose +writings have been as widely read, and who have had as great +a practical and literary influence as perhaps any other class +of authors. The earliest to be born and the last to die of these +was Charles de Saint-Denis, seigneur de saint-Évremond (1613-1703). +<span class="sidenote">Saint-Évremond.</span> +Saint-Évremond was long known rather as a +conversational wit, some of whose good things were +handed about in manuscript, or surreptitiously printed +in foreign lands, than as a writer, and this is still to a certain +extent his reputation. He was at least as cynical as his still +better known contemporary La Rochefoucauld, if not more so, +and he had less intellectual force and less nobility of character. +But his wit was very great, and he set the example of the brilliant +societies of the next century. Many of Saint-Évremond’s +printed works are nominally works of literary criticism, but +the moralizing spirit pervades all of them. No writer had a +greater influence on Voltaire, and through Voltaire on the +whole course of French literature after him. In direct literary +value, however, no comparison can be made between Saint-Évremond +and the author of the <i>Sentences et maximes morales</i>. +François, duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), has other literary +<span class="sidenote">La Rochefoucauld.</span> +claims besides those of this famous book. His <i>Mémoires</i> +were very favourably judged by his contemporaries, +and they are still held to deserve no little praise even +among the numerous and excellent works of the kind which that +age of memoir-writers produced. But while the <i>Mémoires</i> thus +invite comparison, the <i>Maximes et sentences</i> stand alone. Even +allowing that the mere publication of detached reflections in +terse language was not absolutely new, it had never been carried, +perhaps has never since been carried, to such a perfection. +Beside La Rochefoucauld all other writers are diffuse, vacillating, +unfinished, rough. Not only is there in him never a word too +much, but there is never a word too little. The thought is always +fully expressed, not compressed. Frequently as the metaphor +of minting or stamping coin has been applied to the art of managing +words, it has never been applied so appropriately as to the +maxims of La Rochefoucauld. The form of them is almost +beyond praise, and its excellencies, combined with their immense +and enduring popularity, have had a very considerable share in +influencing the character of subsequent French literature. Of +hardly less importance in this respect, though of considerably +less intellectual and literary individuality, was the translator +of Theophrastus and the author of the <i>Caractères</i>, La Bruyère. +<span class="sidenote">La Bruyère.</span> +Jean de la Bruyère (1645-1696), though frequently +epigrammatic, did not aim at the same incredible +terseness as the author of the <i>Maximes</i>. His plan did +not, indeed, render it necessary. Both in England and in France +there had been during the whole of the century a mania for +character writing, both of the general and Theophrastic kind, and +of the historical and personal order. The latter, of which our +own Clarendon is perhaps the greatest master, abound in the +French memoirs of the period. The former, of which the naïve +sketches of Earle and Overbury are English examples, culminated +in those of La Bruyère, which are not only light and easy in +manner and matter, but also in style essentially amusing, though +instructive as well. Both he and La Rochefoucauld had an +enduring effect on the literature which followed them—an effect +perhaps superior to that exercised by any other single work in +French, except the <i>Roman de la rose</i> and the <i>Essais</i> of Montaigne.</p> + +<p><i>17th-century Savants.</i>—Of the literature of the 17th century +there only remains to be dealt with the section of those writers +who devoted themselves to scientific pursuits or to antiquarian +erudition of one form or another. It was in this century that +literary criticism of French and in French first began to be largely +composed, and after this time we shall give it a separate heading. +It was very far, however, from attaining the excellence or +observing the form which it afterwards assumed. The institution +of the Academy led to various linguistic works. One of the +earliest of these was the <i>Remarques</i> of the Savoyard Claude +Favre de Vaugelas (1595-1650), afterwards re-edited by Thomas +Corneille. Pellisson wrote a history of the Academy itself when +it had as yet but a brief one. The famous <i>Examen du Cid</i> was +an instance of the literary criticism of the time which was +afterwards represented by René Rapin (1621-1687), Dominique +Bouhours (1628-1702) and René de Bossu (1631-1680), while +Adrien Baillet (1649-1706) has collected the largest thesaurus +of the subject in his <i>Jugemens des savants</i>. Boileau set the +example of treating such subjects in verse, and in the latter part +of the century <i>Reflexions</i>, <i>Discourses</i>, <i>Observations</i>, and the like, +on particular styles, literary forms and authors, became exceedingly +numerous. In earlier years France possessed a numerous +band of classical scholars of the first rank, such as Scaliger and +Casaubon, who did not lack followers. But all or almost all this +sort of work was done in Latin, so that it contributed little to +French literature properly so-called, though the translations from +the classics of Nicolas Perrot d’Ablancourt (1606-1664) have +always taken rank among the models of French style. On the +other hand, mathematical studies were pursued by persons of +far other and far greater genius, and, taking from this time +forward a considerable position in education and literature in +France, had much influence on both. The mathematical discoveries +of Pascal and Descartes are well known. Of science +proper, apart from mathematics, France did not produce many +distinguished cultivators in this century. The philosophy of +Descartes was not on the whole favourable to such investigations, +which were in the next century to be pursued with ardour. Its +tendencies found more congenial vent and are more thoroughly +<span class="sidenote">Controversy between Ancients and Moderns.</span> +exemplified in the famous quarrel between the Ancients +and the Moderns. This, of Italian origin, was mainly +started in France by Charles Perrault (1628-1703), +who thereby rendered much less service to literature +than by his charming fairy tales. The opposite side +was taken by Boileau, and the fight was afterwards +revived by Antoine Houdar[d, t] de la Motte (1672-1731), a +writer of little learning but much talent in various ways, and +by the celebrated Madame Dacier, Anne Lefèvre (1654-1720). +The discussion was conducted, as is well known, without very +much knowledge or judgment among the disputants on the one +side or on the other. But at this very time there were in France +students and scholars of the most profound erudition. We +have already mentioned Fleury and his ecclesiastical history. +But Fleury is only the last and the most popular of a race of +omnivorous and untiring scholars, whose labours have ever since, +until the modern fashion of first-hand investigations came in, +furnished the bulk of historical and scholarly references and +quotations. To this century belong le Nain de Tillemont (1637-1698), +whose enormous <i>Histoire des empereurs</i> and <i>Mémoires +pour servir à l’histoire ecclésiastique</i> served Gibbon and a +hundred others as quarry; Charles Dufresne, seigneur de +Ducange (1614-1688), whose well-known glossary was only one +of numerous productions; Jean Mabillon (1632-1707), one +of the most voluminous of the voluminous Benedictines; and +Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), chief of all authorities of +the dry-as-dust kind on classical archaeology and art.</p> + +<p><i>Opening of the 18th Century.</i>—The beginning of the 18th +century is among the dead seasons of French literature. All +the greatest men whose names had illustrated the early reign of +Louis XIV. in profane literature passed away long before him, +and the last if the least of them, Boileau and Thomas Corneille, +only survived into the very earliest years of the new age. The +political and military disasters of the last years of the reign were +accompanied by a state of things in society unfavourable to +literary development. The devotion to pure literature and philosophy +proper which Descartes and Corneille had inspired had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>135</span> +died out, and the devotion to physical science, to sociology, +and to a kind of free-thinking optimism which was to inspire +Voltaire and the Encyclopedists had not yet become fashionable. +Fénelon and Malebranche still survived, but they were emphatically +men of the last age, as was Massillon, though he lived till +nearly the middle of the century. The characteristic literary +figures of the opening years of the period are d’Aguesseau, +Fontenelle, Saint-Simon, personages in many ways interesting +and remarkable, but purely transitional in their characteristics. +Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757) is, indeed, perhaps +the most typical figure of the time. He was a dramatist, a +moralist, a philosopher, physical and metaphysical, a critic, an +historian, a poet and a satirist. The manner of his works is +always easy and graceful, and their matter rarely contemptible.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Poetry.</i>—The dispiriting signs shown during the +17th century by French poetry proper received entire fulfilment +in the following age. The two poets who were most prominent +at the opening of the period were the abbé de Chaulieu (1639-1720) +and the marquis de la Fare (1644-1712), poetical or rather +versifying twins who are always quoted together. They were +both men who lived to a great age, yet their characteristics are +rather those of their later than of their earlier contemporaries. +They derive on the one hand from the somewhat trifling school +of Voiture, on the other from the Bacchic sect of Saint-Amant; +and they succeed in uniting the inferior qualities of both with +the cramped and impoverished though elegant style of which +Fénelon had complained. Their compositions are as a rule +lyrical, as lyrical poetry was understood after the days of Malherbe—that +is to say, quatrains of the kind ridiculed by Molière, +and Pindaric odes, which have been justly described as made +up of alexandrines after the manner of Boileau cut up into shorter +or longer lengths. They were followed, however, by the one +poet who succeeded in producing something resembling poetry +<span class="sidenote">J. B. Rousseau.</span> +in this artificial style, J. B. Rousseau (1671-1741). +Rousseau, who in some respects was nothing so little +as a religious poet, was nevertheless strongly influenced, +as Marot had been, by the Psalms of David. His <i>Odes</i> and his +<i>Cantates</i> are perhaps less destitute of that spirit than the work +of any other poet of the century excepting André Chénier. +Rousseau was also an extremely successful epigrammatist, +having in this respect, too, resemblances to Marot. Le Franc +de Pompignan (1700-1784), to whom Voltaire’s well-known +sarcasms are not altogether just, and Louis Racine (1692-1763), +who wrote pious and altogether forgotten poems, belonged to +the same poetical school; though both the style and matter of +Racine are strongly tinctured by his Port Royalist sympathies +and education. Lighter verse was represented in the 18th +century by the long-lived Saint-Aulaire (1643-1742), by Gentil +Bernard (1710-1775), by the abbé (afterwards cardinal) de Bernis +(1715-1794), by Claude Joseph Dorat (1734-1780), by Antoine +Bertin (1752-1790) and by Evariste de Parny (1753-1814), the +last the most vigorous, but all somewhat deserving the term +applied to Dorat of <i>ver luisant du Parnasse</i>. The jovial traditions +of Saint-Amant begat a similar school of anacreontic songsters, +which, represented in turn by Charles François Panard (1674-1765), +Charles Collé (1709-1783), Armand Gouffé (1775-1845), +and Marc-Antoine-Madeleine Desaugiers (1772-1827), led directly +to the best of all such writers, Béranger. To this class Rouget +de Lisle (1760-1836) perhaps also belongs; though his most +famous composition, the <i>Marseillaise</i>, is of a different stamp. +Nor is the account of the light verse of the 18th century complete +without reference to a long succession of fable writers, who, in an +unbroken chain, connect La Fontaine in the 17th century with +Viennet in the 19th. None of the links, however, of this chain, +with the exception of Jean Pierre Florian (1759-1794) deserve +<span class="sidenote">Voltaire (poetry).</span> +much attention. The universal faculty of Voltaire +(1694-1778) showed itself in his poetical productions +no less than in his other works, and it is perhaps not +least remarkable in verse. It is impossible nowadays to regard +the <i>Henriade</i> as anything but a highly successful prize poem, +but the burlesque epic of <i>La Pucelle</i>, discreditable as it may be +from the moral point of view, is remarkable enough as literature.</p> + +<p>The epistles and satires are among the best of their kind, the +verse tales are in the same way admirable, and the epigrams, +impromptus, and short miscellaneous poems generally are the +<i>ne plus ultra</i> of verse which is not poetry. The Anglomania +of the century extended into poetry, and the <i>Seasons</i> of Thomson +set the example of a whole library of tedious descriptive verse, +which in its turn revenged France upon England by producing +or helping to produce English poems of the Darwin school. +The first of these descriptive performances was the <i>Saisons</i> +of Jean François de Saint-Lambert (1716-1803), identical in +title with its model, but of infinitely inferior value. Saint-Lambert +was followed by Jacques Delille (1738-1813) in <i>Les +Jardins</i>, Antoine Marin le Mierre (1723-1793) in <i>Les Fastes</i>, +and Jean Antoine Roucher (1745-1794) in <i>Les Mois</i>. Indeed, +everything that could be described was seized upon by these +describers. Delille also translated the <i>Georgics</i>, and for a time +was the greatest living poet of France, the title being only disputed +by Escouchard le Brun (1729-1807), a lyrist and ode +writer of the school of J. B. Rousseau, but not destitute of energy. +The only other poets until Chénier who deserve notice are +Nicolas Gilbert (1751-1780)—the French Chatterton, or perhaps +rather the French Oldham, who died in a workhouse at +twenty-nine after producing some vigorous satires and, at the +point of death, an elegy of great beauty; Jacques Charles Louis +Clinchaut de Malfilâtre (1732-1767), another short-lived poet +whose “Ode to the Sun” has a certain stateliness; and Jean +Baptiste Gresset (1709-1777), the author of <i>Ver-Vert</i> and of other +poems of the lighter order, which are not far, if at all, below the +<span class="sidenote">Chénier.</span> +level of Voltaire. André Chénier (1762-1794) stands +far apart from the art of his century, though the strong +chain of custom, and his early death by the guillotine, prevented +him from breaking finally through the restraints of its language +and its versification. Chénier, half a Greek by blood, was wholly +one in spirit and sentiment. The manner of his verses, the very +air which surrounds them and which they diffuse, are different +from those of the 18th century; and his poetry is probably the +utmost that its language and versification could produce. To +do more, the revolution which followed a generation after his +death was required.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Drama.</i>—The results of the cultivation of dramatic +poetry at this time were even less individually remarkable than +those of the attention paid to poetry proper. Here again the +astonishing power and literary aptitude of Voltaire gave value to +his attempts in a style which, notwithstanding that it counts +Racine among its practitioners, was none the less predestined +to failure. Voltaire’s own efforts in this kind are indisputably as +successful as they could be. Foreigners usually prefer <i>Mahomet</i> +and <i>Zaïre</i> to <i>Bajazet</i> and <i>Mithridate</i>, though there is no doubt +that no work of Voltaire’s comes up to <i>Polyeucte</i> and <i>Rodogune</i>, +as certainly no single passage in any of his plays can approach +the best passages of <i>Cinna</i> and <i>Les Horaces</i>. But the remaining +tragic writers of the century, with the single exception of Crébillon +<i>père</i>, are scarcely third-rate. C. Jolyot de Crébillon (1674-1762) +himself had genius, and there are to be found in his work evidences +of a spirit which had seemed to die away with <i>Saint-Genest</i>, and +was hardly to revive until <i>Hernani</i>. Of the imitators of Racine +and Voltaire, La Motte in <i>Inés de Castro</i> was not wholly unsuccessful. +François Joseph de la Grange-Chancel (1677-1758) copied +chiefly the worst side of the author of <i>Britannicus</i>, and Bernard +Joseph Saurin (1706-1781) and Pierre-Laurent de Belloy (1727-1775) +performed the same service for Voltaire. Le Mierre and La +Harpe, mentioned and to be mentioned, were tragedians; but +the <i>Iphigénie en Tauride</i> of Guimond de la Touche (1725-1760) +deserves more special mention than anything of theirs. There +was an infinity of tragic writers and tragic plays in this century, +but hardly any others of them even deserve mention. The muse +of comedy was decidedly more happy in her devotees. Molière +was a far safer if a more difficult model than Racine, and the +inexorable fashion which had bound down tragedy to a feeble +imitation of Euripides did not similarly prescribe an undeviating +adherence to Terence. Tragedy had never been, has scarcely +been since, anything but an exotic in France; comedy was of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>136</span> +soil and native. Very early In the century Alain René le Sage +(1668-1747), in the admirable comedy of <i>Turcaret</i>, produced a +work not unworthy to stand by the side of all but his master’s +best. Philippe Destouches (1680-1754) was also a fertile comedy +writer in the early years of the century, and in <i>Le Glorieux</i> and +<i>Le Philosophe marié</i> achieved considerable success. As the age +went on, comedy, always apt to lay hold of passing events, +devoted itself to the great struggle between the Philosophes and +their opponents. Curiously enough, the party which engrossed +almost all the wit of France had the worst of it in this dramatic +portion of the contest, if in no other. The <i>Méchant</i> of Gresset and +the <i>Métromanie</i> of Alexis Piron (1689-1773) were far superior +to anything produced on the other side, and the <i>Philosophes</i> of +Charles Palissot de Montenoy (1730-1814), though scurrilous +and broadly farcical, had a great success. On the other hand, it +was to a Philosophe that the invention of a new dramatic style +was due, and still more the promulgation of certain ideas on +dramatic criticism and construction, which, after being filtered +through the German mind, were to return to France and to +exercise the most powerful influence on its dramatic productions. +<span class="sidenote">Diderot (plays).</span> +This was Denis Diderot (1713-1784), the most fertile +genius of the century, but also the least productive +in finished and perfect work. His chief dramas, the +<i>Fils naturel</i> and the <i>Père de famille</i>, are certainly not great +successes; the shorter plays, <i>Est-il bon?</i> <i>est-il méchant?</i> and +<i>La Pièce et le prologue</i>, are better. But it was his follower +Michel Jean Sédaine (1719-1797) who, in <i>Le Philosophe sans le +savoir</i> and other pieces, produced the best examples of the bourgeois +as opposed to the heroic drama. Diderot is sometimes +credited or discredited with the invention of the <i>Comédie Larmoyante</i>, +a title which indeed his own plays do not altogether refuse, +but this special variety seems to be, in its invention, rather the +property of Pierre Claude Nivelle de la Chaussée (1692-1754). +Comedy sustained itself, and even gained ground towards the end +of the century; the <i>Jeune Indienne</i> of Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794), +if not quite worthy of its author’s brilliant talent in other +paths, is noteworthy, and so is the <i>Billet perdu</i> of Joseph François +Edouard de Corsembleu Desmahis (1722-1761), while at the +extreme limit of our present period there appears the remarkable +figure of Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799). The +<i>Mariage de Figaro</i> and the <i>Barbier de Séville</i> are well known as +having had attributed to them no mean place among the literary +causes and forerunners of the Revolution. Their dramatic and +literary value would itself have sufficed to obtain attention for +them at any time, though there can be no doubt that their +popularity was mainly due to their political appositeness. The +most remarkable point about them, as about the school of +comedy of which Congreve was the chief master in England at +the beginning of the century, was the abuse and superfluity of +wit in the dialogue, indiscriminately allotted to all characters +alike. It is difficult to give particulars, but would be improper +to omit all mention, of such dramatic or quasi-dramatic work +as the libretti of operas, farces for performance at fairs and the +like. French authors of the time from Le Sage downwards +usually managed these with remarkable skill.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Fiction.</i>—With prose fiction the case was altogether +different. We have seen how the short tale of a few +pages had already in the 16th century attained high if not the +highest excellence; how at three different periods the fancy for +long-winded prose narration developed itself in the prose rehandlings +of the chivalric poems, in the <i>Amadis</i> romances, +and in the portentous recitals of Gomberville and La Calprenède; +how burlesques of these romances were produced from Rabelais +to Scarron; and how at last Madame de Lafayette showed the +way to something like the novel of the day. If we add the fairy +story, of which Perrault and Madame d’Aulnoy were the chief +practitioners, and a small class of miniature romances, of which +<i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i> in the 13th, and the delightful <i>Jehan de +Paris</i> (of the 15th or 16th, in which a king of England is patriotically +sacrificed) are good representatives, we shall have exhausted +the list. The 18th century was quick to develop the system +of the author of the <i>Princesse de Clèves</i>, but it did not abandon +the cultivation of the romance, that is to say, fiction dealing +with incident and with the simpler passions, in devoting itself +to the novel, that is to say, fiction dealing with the analysis +of sentiment and character. Le Sage, its first great novelist, in +his <i>Diable boiteux</i> and <i>Gil Blas</i>, went to Spain not merely for +his subject but also for his inspiration and manner, following +the lead of the picaroon romance of Rojas and Scarron. Like +Fielding, however, whom he much resembles, Le Sage mingled +with the romance of incident the most careful attention to character +and the most lively portrayal of it, while his style and +language are such as to make his work one of the classics of +French literature. The novel of character was really founded +in France by the abbé Prévost d’Exilles (1697-1763), the author +of <i>Cleveland</i> and of the incomparable <i>Manon Lescaut</i>. The +popularity of this style was much helped by the immense vogue +in France of the works of Richardson. Side by side with it, +however, and for a time enjoying still greater popularity, there +flourished a very different school of fiction, of which Voltaire, +whose name occupies the first or all but the first place in every +branch of literature of his time, was the most brilliant cultivator. +This was a direct development of the earlier <i>conte</i>, and consisted +usually of the treatment, in a humorous, satirical, and not +always over-decent fashion, of contemporary foibles, beliefs, +philosophies and occupations. These tales are of every rank +of excellence and merit both literary and moral, and range from +the astonishing wit, grace and humour of <i>Candide</i> and <i>Zadig</i> +to the book which is Diderot’s one hardly pardonable sin, and +the similar but more lively efforts of Crébillon <i>fils</i> (1707-1777). +These latter deeps led in their turn to the still lower depths +of La Clos and Louvet. A third class of 18th-century fiction +consists of attempts to return to the humorous <i>fatrasie</i> of the +16th century, attempts which were as much influenced by Sterne +as the sentimental novel was by Richardson. The <i>Homme +aux quarante écus</i> of Voltaire has something of this character, +but the most characteristic works of the style are the <i>Jacques +le fataliste</i> of Diderot, which shows it nearly at its best, and +the <i>Compère Mathieu</i>, sometimes attributed to Pigault-Lebrun +(1753-1835), but no doubt in reality due to Jacques du Laurens +(1719-1797), which shows it at perhaps its worst. Another +remarkable story-teller was Cazotte (1719-1792), whose <i>Diable +amoureux</i> displays much fantastic power, and connects itself +with a singular fancy of the time for occult studies and <i>diablerie</i>, +manifested later by the patronage shown to Cagliostro, Mesmer, +St Germain and others. In this connexion, too, may perhaps +also be mentioned most appropriately <span class="correction" title="amended from Bestif">Restif</span> de la Bretonne, +a remarkably original and voluminous writer, who was little +noticed by his contemporaries and successors for the best part +of a century. Restif, who was nicknamed the “Rousseau of +the gutter,” <i>Rousseau du ruisseau</i>, presents to an English +imagination many of the characteristics of a non-moral Defoe. +While these various schools busied themselves more or less with +real life seriously depicted or purposely travestied, the great +vogue and success of <i>Télémaque</i> produced a certain number of +didactic works, in which moral or historical information was +sought to be conveyed under a more or less thin guise of fiction. +Such was the <i>Voyage du jeune Anacharsis</i> of Jean Jacques +Barthélemy (1716-1795); such the <i>Numa Pompilius</i> and +<i>Gonzalve de Cordoue</i> of Florian (1755-1794), who also deserves +notice as a writer of pastorals, fables and short prose tales; +such the <i>Bélisaire</i> and <i>Les Incas</i> of Jean François Marmontel +(1723-1799). Between this class and that of the novel of sentiment +may perhaps be placed <i>Paul et Virginie</i> and <i>La Chaumière +indienne</i>; though Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) should +more properly be noticed after Rousseau and as a moralist. +Diderot’s fiction-writing has already been referred to more than +once, but his <i>Religieuse</i> deserves citation here as a powerful +specimen of the novel both of analysis and polemic; while his +undoubted masterpiece, the <i>Neveu de Rameau</i>, though very +difficult to class, comes under this head as well as under any +other. There are, however, two of the novelists of this age, and +of the most remarkable, who have yet to be noticed, and these +are the author of <i>Marianne</i> and the author of <i>Julie</i>. We do +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>137</span> +not mention Pierre de Marivaux (1688-1763) in this connexion +as the equal of Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), but merely +as being in his way almost equally original and equally remote +from any suspicion of school influence. He began with burlesque +writing, and was also the author of several comedies, of which +<i>Les Fausses Confidences</i> is the principal. But it is in prose fiction +that he really excels. He may claim to have, at least in the +opinion of his contemporaries, invented a style, though perhaps +the term <i>marivaudage</i>, which was applied to it, has a not altogether +complimentary connotation. He may claim also to have +invented the novel without a purpose, which aims simply at +amusement, and at the same time does not seek to attain that +end by buffoonery or by satire. Gray’s definition of happiness, +“to lie on a sofa and read endless novels by Marivaux” (it is +true that he added Crébillon), is well known, and the production +of mere pastime by means more or less harmless has since become +so well-recognized a function of the novelist that Marivaux, as +one of the earliest to discharge it, deserves notice. The name, +<span class="sidenote">J. J. Rousseau.</span> +however, of Jean Jacques Rousseau is of far different +importance. His two great works, the <i>Nouvelle +Héloïse</i> and <i>Émile</i>, are as far as possible from being +perfect as novels. But no novels in the world have ever had +such influence as these. To a great extent this influence was +due mainly to their attractions as novels, imperfect though they +may be in this character, but it was beyond dispute also owing +to the doctrines which they contained, and which were exhibited +in novel form.</p> + +<p>Such are the principal developments of fiction during the +century; but it is remarkable that, varied as they were, and +excellent as was some of the work to which they gave rise, none +of these schools was directly very fertile in results or successors. +The period with which we shall next have to deal, that from +the outbreak of the Revolution to the death of Louis XVIII., is +curiously barren of fiction of any merit. It was not till English +influence began again to assert itself in the later days of +the Restoration that the prose romance began once more to be +written.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century History.</i>—It is not, however, in any of the +departments of <i>belles-lettres</i> that the real eminence of the 18th +century as a time of literary production in France consists. +In all serious branches of study its accomplishments were, from +a literary point of view, remarkable, uniting as it did an extraordinary +power of popular and literary expression with an ardent +spirit of inquiry, a great speculative ability, and even a far more +considerable amount of laborious erudition than is generally +supposed. The historical studies and results of 18th-century +speculation in France are of especial and peculiar importance. +There is no doubt that what is called the science of history +dates from this time, and though the beginning of it is usually +assigned to the Italian Vico, its complete indication may perhaps +with equal or greater justice be claimed by the Frenchman +Turgot. Before Turgot, however, there were great names in +French historical writing, and perhaps the greatest of all is that +of Charles Secondat de Montesquieu (1689-1755). The three +principal works of this great writer are all historical and at the +same time political in character. In the <i>Lettres persanes</i> he +handled, with wit inferior to the wit of no other writer even in +that witty age, the corruptions and dangers of contemporary +morals and politics. The literary charm of this book—the +plan of which was suggested by a work, the <i>Amusements sérieux +et comiques</i>, of Dufresny (1648-1724), a comic writer not destitute +of merit—is very great, and its plan was so popular as to lead +to a thousand imitations, of which all, except those of Voltaire +and Goldsmith, only bring out the immense superiority of the +original. Few things could be more different from this lively +and popular book than Montesquieu’s next work, the <i>Grandeur +et décadence des Romains</i>, in which the same acuteness and +knowledge of human nature are united with considerable erudition, +and with a weighty though perhaps somewhat grandiloquent +and rhetorical style. His third and greatest work, the <i>Esprit +des lois</i>, is again different both in style and character, and such +defects as it has are as nothing when compared with the merits +of its fertility in ideas, its splendid breadth of view, and the +felicity with which the author, in a manner unknown before, +recognizes the laws underlying complicated assemblages of fact. +The style of this great work is equal to its substance; less light +than that of the <i>Lettres</i>, less rhetorical than that of the <i>Grandeur +des Romains</i>, it is still a marvellous union of dignity and wit. +Around Montesquieu, partly before and partly after him, is +a group of philosophical or at least systematic historians, of +whom the chief are Jean Baptiste Dubos (1670-1742), and G. +Bonnot de Mably (1709-1785). Dubos, whose chief work is not +historical but aesthetic (<i>Réflexions sur la poésie et la peinture</i>), +wrote a so-called <i>Histoire critique de l’établissement de la monarchie +française</i>, which is as far as possible from being in the modern +sense critical, inasmuch as, in the teeth of history, and in order +to exalt the <i>Tiers état</i>, it pretends an amicable coalition of Franks +and Gauls, and not an irruption by the former. Mably (<i>Observations +sur l’histoire de la France</i>) had a much greater influence +than either of these writers, and a decidedly mischievous one, +especially at the period of the Revolution. He, more than any +one else, is responsible for the ignorant and childish extolling +of Greek and Roman institutions, and the still more ignorant +depreciation of the middle ages, which was for a time characteristic +of French politicians. Montesquieu was, as we have said, +followed by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-1781), whose +writings are few in number, and not remarkable for style, but +full of original thought. Turgot in his turn was followed by +Condorcet (1743-1794), whose tendency is somewhat more +sociological than directly historical. Towards the end of the +period, too, a considerable number of philosophical histories +were written, the usual object of which was, under cover of a kind +of allegory, to satirize and attack the existing institutions and +government of France. The most famous of these was the +<i>Histoire des Indes</i>, nominally written by the Abbé Guillaume +Thomas François Raynal (1713-1796), but really the joint work +of many members of the Philosophe party, especially Diderot. +Side by side with this really or nominally philosophical school +of history there existed another and less ambitious school, which +contented itself with the older and simpler view of the science. +The Abbé René de Vertot (1655-1735) belongs almost as much +to the 17th as to the 18th century; but his principal works, +especially the famous <i>Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte</i>, date from +the later period, as do also the <i>Révolutions romaines</i>. Vertot +is above all things a literary historian, and the well-known +“Mon siège est fait,” whether true or not, certainly expresses +his system. Of the same school, though far more comprehensive, +was the laborious Charles Rollin (1661-1741), whose works in +the original, or translated and continued in the case of the +<i>Histoire romaine</i> by Jean Baptiste Louis Crévier (1693-1765), +were long the chief historical manuals of Europe. The president +Charles Jean François Hénault (1685-1770), and Louis Pierre +Anquetil (1723-1806) were praiseworthy writers, the first of +French history, the second of that and much else. In the same +class, too, far superior as is his literary power, must be ranked +the historical works of Voltaire, <i>Charles XII</i>., <i>Pierre le Grand</i>, +&c. A very perfect example of the historian who is literary +first of all is supplied by Claude Carloman de Rulhière (1735-1791), +whose <i>Révolution en Russie en 1762</i> is one of the little +masterpieces of history, while his larger and posthumous work on +the last days of the Polish kingdom exhibits perhaps some of +the defects of this class of historians. Lastly must be mentioned +the memoirs and correspondence of the period, the materials +of history if not history itself. The century opened with the most +famous of all these, the memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon +(1675-1755), an extraordinary series of pictures of the court +of Louis XIV. and the Regency, written in an unequal and +incorrect style, but with something of the irregular excellence +of the great 16th-century writers, and most striking in the sombre +bitterness of its tone. The subsequent and less remarkable +memoirs of the century are so numerous that it is almost impossible +to select a few for reference, and altogether impossible to +mention all. Of those bearing on public history the memoirs +of Madame de Staël (Mlle Delaunay) (1684-1750), of Pierre +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>138</span> +Louis de Voyer, marquis d’Argenson (1694-1757), of Charles +Pinot Duclos (1704-1772), of Stephanie Félicité de Saint-Aubin, +Madame de Genlis (1746-1830), of Pierre Victor de Bésenval +(1722-1791), of Madame Campan (1752-1822) and of the cardinal +de Bernis (1715-1794), may perhaps be selected for mention; +of those bearing on literary and private history, the memoirs +of Madame d’Épinay (1726-1783), those of Mathieu Marais +(1664-1737) the so-called <i>Mémoires secrets</i> of Louis Petit de +Bachaumont (1690-1770), and the innumerable writings having +reference to Voltaire and to the Philosophe party generally. +Here, too, may be mentioned a remarkable class of literature, +consisting of purely private and almost confidential letters, +which were written at this time with very remarkable literary +excellence. As specimens may be selected those of Mademoiselle +Aissé (1694-1757), which are models of easy and unaffected +tenderness, and those of Mademoiselle de Lespinasse (1732-1776) +the companion of Madame du Deffand and afterwards of +d’Alembert. These latter, in their extraordinary fervour and +passion, not merely contrast strongly with the generally languid +and frivolous gallantry of the age, but also constitute one of its +most remarkable literary monuments. It has been said of them +that they “burn the paper,” and the expression is not exaggerated. +Madame du Deffand’s (1697-1780) own letters, many of +which were written to Horace Walpole, are noteworthy in a very +different way. Of lighter letters the charming correspondence +of Diderot with Mademoiselle Voland deserves special mention. +But the correspondence, like the memoirs of this century, defies +justice to be done to it in any cursory or limited mention. In +this connexion, however, it may be well to mention some of the +most remarkable works of the time, the <i>Confessions</i>, <i>Rêveries</i>, +and <i>Promenades d’un solitaire</i> of Rousseau. In these works, +especially in the <i>Confessions</i>, there is not merely exhibited +passion as fervid though perhaps less unaffected than that of +Mademoiselle de Lespinasse—there appear in them two literary +characteristics which, if not entirely novel, were for the first time +brought out deliberately by powers of the first order, were for the +first time made the mainspring of literary interest, and thereby +set an example which for more than a century has been persistently +followed, and which has produced some of the finest +results of modern literature. The first of these was the elaborate +and unsparing analysis and display of the motives, the weaknesses +and the failings of individual character. This process, which +Rousseau unflinchingly performed on himself, has been followed +usually in respect to fictitious characters by his successors. The +other novelty was the feeling for natural beauty and the elaborate +description of it, the credit of which latter must, it has been +agreed by all impartial critics, be assigned rather to Rousseau +than to any other writer. His influence in this direction was, +however, soon taken up and continued by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, +the connecting link between Rousseau and Chateaubriand, +some of whose works have been already alluded to. In particular +the author of <i>Paul et Virginie</i> set himself to develop the example +of description which Rousseau had set, and his word-paintings, +though less powerful than those of his model, are more abundant, +more elaborate, and animated by a more amiable spirit.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Philosophy.</i>—The Anglomania which distinguished +the time was nowhere more <span class="correction" title="amended from stongly">strongly</span> shown than in the +cast and direction of its philosophical speculations. As Montesquieu +and Voltaire had imported into France a vivid theoretical +admiration for the British constitution and for British theories +in politics, so Voltaire, Diderot and a crowd of others popularized +and continued in France the philosophical ideas of Hobbes and +Locke and even Berkeley, the theological ideas of Bolingbroke, +Shaftesbury and the English deists, and the physical discoveries +of Newton. Descartes, Frenchman and genius as he was, and +though his principles in physics and philosophy were long clung +to in the schools, was completely abandoned by the more adventurous +and progressive spirits. At no time indeed, owing to the +confusion of thought and purpose to which we have already +alluded, was the word philosophy used with greater looseness +than at this time. Using it, as we have hitherto used it, in the +sense of metaphysics, the majority of the Philosophes have very +little claim to their title. There were some who manifested, +however, an aptitude for purely philosophical argument, and one +who confined himself strictly thereto. Among these the most +remarkable are Julien Offroy de la Mettrie (1709-1751) and +Denis Diderot. La Mettrie in his works <i>L’Homme machine</i>, +<i>L’Homme plante</i>, &c., applied a lively and vigorous imagination, +a considerable familiarity with physics and medicine, and a +brilliant but unequal style, to the task of advocating materialistic +ideas on the constitution of man. Diderot, in a series of early +works, <i>Lettre sur les aveugles</i>, <i>Promenade d’un sceptique</i>, <i>Pensées +philosophiques</i>, &c., exhibited a good acquaintance with philosophical +history and opinion, and gave sign in this direction, +as in so many others, of a far-reaching intellect. As in almost all +his works, however, the value of the thought is extremely unequal, +while the different pieces, always written in the hottest haste, +and never duly matured or corrected, present but few +specimens of finished and polished writing. Charles Bonnet +(1720-1793), a Swiss of Geneva, wrote a large number of works, +many of which are purely scientific. Others, however, are more +psychological, and these, though advocating the materialistic +philosophy generally in vogue, were remarkable for uniting +materialism with an honest adherence to Christianity. The +half mystical writer, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803) +also deserves notice. But the French metaphysician of the +century is undoubtedly Étienne Bonnot, abbé de +<span class="sidenote">Condillac.</span> +Condillac (1714-1780), almost the only writer of the +time in France who succeeded in keeping strictly to philosophy +without attempting to pursue his system to its results in ethics, +politics and theology. In the <i>Traité des sensations</i>, the <i>Essai +sur l’origine des connaissances humaines</i> and other works +Condillac elaborated and continued the imperfect sensationalism +of Locke. As his philosophical view, though perhaps more restricted, +was far more direct, consecutive and uncompromising +than that of the Englishman, so his style greatly exceeded +Locke’s in clearness and elegance and as a good medium of +philosophical expression.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Theology.</i>—To devote a section to the history of +the theological literature of the 18th century in France may +seem something of a contradiction; for, indeed, all or most of +such literature was anti-theological. The magnificent list of +names which the church had been able to claim on her side in +the 17th century was exhausted before the end of the second +quarter of the 18th with Massillon, and none came to fill their +place. Very rarely has orthodoxy been so badly defended as at +this time. The literary championship of the church was entirely +in the hands of the Jesuits, and of a few disreputable literary freelances +like Élie Fréron (1719-1776) and Pierre François Guyot, +abbé Desfontaines (1685-1745). The Jesuits were learned enough, +and their principal journal, that of Trévoux, was conducted with +much vigour and a great deal of erudition. But they were in the +first place discredited by the moral taint which has always hung +over Jesuitism, and in the second place by the persecutions of the +Jansenists and the Protestants, which were attributed to their +influence. But one single work on the orthodox side has preserved +the least reputation; while, on the other hand, the names +of Père Nonotte (1711-1793) and several of his fellows have been +enshrined unenviably in the imperishable ridicule of Voltaire, +one only of whose adversaries, the abbé Antoine Guénée (1717-1803), +was able to meet him in the <i>Lettres de quelques Juifs</i> with +something like his own weapons. It has never been at all accurately +<span class="sidenote">Voltaire (theology).</span> +decided how far what may be called the scoffing +school of Voltaire represents a direct revolt against +Christianity, and how far it was merely a kind of +guerilla warfare against the clergy. It is positively certain that +Voltaire was not an atheist, and that he did not approve of +atheism. But his <i>Dictionnaire philosophique</i>, which is typical of +a vast amount of contemporary and subsequent literature, consists +of a heterogeneous assemblage of articles directed against +various points of dogma and ritual and various characteristics +of the sacred records. From the literary point of view, it is one +of the most characteristic of all Voltaire’s works, though it is +perhaps not entirely his. The desultory arrangement, the light +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>139</span> +and lively style, the extensive but not always too accurate +erudition, and the somewhat captious and quibbling objections, +are intensely Voltairian. But there is little seriousness about it, +and certainly no kind of rancorous or deep-seated hostility. +With many, however, of Voltaire’s pupils and younger contemporaries +the case was altered. They were distinctively atheists +and anti-supernaturalists. The atheism of Diderot, unquestionably +the greatest of them all, has been keenly debated; but in +the case of Étienne Damilaville (1723-1768), Jacques André +Naigeon (1738-1810), Paul Henri Dietrich, baron d’Holbach, +and others there is no room for doubt. By these persons a +great mass of atheistic and anti-Christian literature was composed +and set afloat. The characteristic work of this school, its last +<span class="sidenote">The “System of Nature.”</span> +word indeed, is the famous <i>Système de la nature</i>, +attributed to Holbach (1723-1789), but known to be, +in part at least, the work of Diderot. In this remarkable +work, which caps the climax of the metaphysical +materialism or rather nihilism of the century, the atheistic +position is clearly put. It made an immense sensation; and it so +fluttered not merely the orthodox but the more moderate freethinkers, +that Frederick of Prussia and Voltaire, perhaps the +most singular pair of defenders that orthodoxy ever had, actually +set themselves to refute it. Its style and argument are very +unequal, as books written in collaboration are apt to be, and +especially books in which Diderot, the paragon of inequality, +had a hand. But there is an almost entire absence of the heterogeneous +assemblage of anecdotes, jokes good and bad, scraps of +accurate or inaccurate physical science, and other incongruous +matter with which the Philosophes were wont to stuff their +works; and lastly, there is in the best passages a kind of sombre +grandeur which recalls the manner as well as the matter of +Lucretius. It is perhaps well to repeat, in the case of so notorious +a book, that this criticism is of a purely literary and formal +character; but there is little doubt that the literary merits of +the work considerably assisted its didactic influence. As the +Revolution approached, and the victory of the Philosophe +party was declared, there appeared for a brief space a group of +cynical and accomplished phrase-makers presenting some similarity +to that of which, a hundred years before, Saint-Évremond +was the most prominent figure. The chief of this group were +<span class="sidenote">Chamfort. Rivarol.</span> +Nicolas Chamfort (1747-1794) on the republican side, +and Antoine Rivarol (1753-1801) on that of the royalists. +Like the older writer to whom we have compared them, +neither can be said to have produced any one work of eminence, +and in this they stand distinguished from moralists like +La Rochefoucauld. The floating sayings, however, which are +attributed to them, or which occur here and there in their +miscellaneous work, yield in no respect to those of the most +famous of their predecessors in wit and a certain kind of wisdom, +though they are frequently more personal than aphoristic.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Moralists and Politicians.</i>—Not the least part, +however, of the energy of the period in thought and writing was +devoted to questions of a directly moral and political kind. With +regard to morality proper the favourite doctrine of the century +was what is commonly called the selfish theory, the only one +indeed which was suitable to the sensationalism of Condillac +and the materialism of Holbach. The pattern book of this +<span class="sidenote">Helvétius.</span> +doctrine was the <i>De l’esprit</i> of Claude Adrien Helvétius +(1715-1771), the most amusing book perhaps which +ever pretended to the title of a solemn philosophical treatise. +There is some analogy between the principles of this work and +those of the <i>Système de la nature</i>. With the inconsistency—some +would say with the questionable honesty—which distinguished +the more famous members of the Philosophe party +when their disciples spoke with what they considered imprudent +outspokenness, Voltaire and even Diderot attacked Helvétius +as the former afterwards attacked Holbach. But whatever may +be the general value of <i>De l’esprit</i>, it is full of acuteness, though +<span class="sidenote">Thomas.</span> +that acuteness is as desultory and disjointed as its +style. As Helvétius may be taken as the representative +author of the cynical school, so perhaps Alexandre Gérard +Thomas (1732-1785) may be taken as representative of the +votaries of noble sentiment to whom we have also alluded. +The works of Thomas chiefly took the form of academic <i>éloges</i> +or formal panegyrics, and they have all the defects, both in +manner and substance, which are associated with that style. +Of yet a third school, corresponding in form to La Rochefoucauld +and La Bruyère, and possessed of some of the antique vigour +of preceding centuries, was Luc de Clapiers, marquis de +<span class="sidenote">Vauvenargues.</span> +Vauvenargues (1715-1747). This writer, who died +very young, has produced maxims and reflections +of considerable mental force and literary finish. From +Voltaire downwards it has been usual to compare him with +Pascal, from whom he is chiefly distinguished by a striking but +somewhat empty stoicism. Between the moralists, of whom we +have taken these three as examples, and the politicians may +be placed Rousseau, who in his novels and miscellaneous works +is of the first class, in his famous <i>Contrat social</i> of the second. +All his theories, whatever their originality and whatever their +value, were made novel and influential by the force of their +statement and the literary beauties of its form. Of direct and +avowed political writings there were few during the century, and +none of anything like the importance of the <i>Contrat social</i>, +theoretical acceptance of the established French constitution +being a point of necessity with all Frenchmen. Nevertheless +it may be said that almost the whole of the voluminous writings +of the Philosophes, even of those who, like Voltaire, were sincerely +aristocratic and monarchic in predilection, were of more or less +veiled political significance. There was one branch of political +writing, moreover, which could be indulged in without much fear. +Political economy and administrative theories received much +attention. The earliest writer of eminence on these subjects +was the great engineer Sébastien le Prestre, marquis de Vauban +(1633-1707), whose <i>Oisivetés</i> and <i>Dîme royale</i> exhibit both great +ability and extensive observation. A more utopian economist +of the same time was Charles Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre +(1658-1743), not to be confounded with the author of <i>Paul et +Virginie</i>. Soon political economy in the hands of François +Quesnay (1694-1774) took a regular form, and towards the middle +of the century a great number of works on questions connected +with it, especially that of free trade in corn, on which Ferdinand +Galiani (1728-1787), André Morellet (1727-1819), both abbés, +and above all Turgot, distinguished themselves. Of writers on +legal subjects and of the legal profession, the century, though not +less fertile than in other directions, produced few or none of any +great importance from the literary point of view. The chief +name which in this connexion is known is that of Chancellor +Henri François d’Aguesseau (1668-1751), at the beginning of the +century, an estimable writer of the Port Royal school, who took +the orthodox side in the great disputes of the time, but failed +to display any great ability therein. He was, as became his +profession, more remarkable as an orator than a writer, and his +works contain valuable testimonies to the especially perturbed +and unquiet condition of his century—a disquiet which is perhaps +also its chief literary note. There were other French magistrates, +such as Montesquieu, Hénault (1685-1770), de Brosses (1706-1773) +and others, who made considerable mark in literature; +but it was usually (except in the case of Montesquieu) in subjects +not even indirectly connected with their profession. The <i>Esprit +des lois</i> stands alone; but as an example of work barristerial +in kind, famous partly for political reasons but of some real +literary merit, we may mention the <i>Mémoire</i> for Calas written by +J. B. J. Élie de Beaumont (1732-1786).</p> + +<p><i>18th-century Criticism and Periodical Literature.</i>—We have said +that literary criticism assumes in this century a sufficient importance +to be treated under a separate heading. Contributions +were made to it of many different kinds and from many different +points of view. Periodical literature, the chief stimulus to its +production, began more and more to come into favour. Even +in the 17th century the <i>Journal des savants</i>, the Jesuit <i>Journal +de Trévoux</i>, and other publications had set the example of different +kinds of it. Just before the Revolution the <i>Gazette de France</i> was +in the hands of J. B. A. Suard (1734-1817), a man who was +nothing if not a literary critic. Perhaps, however, the most +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>140</span> +remarkable contribution of the century to criticism of the +periodical kind was the <i>Feuilles de Grimm</i>, a circular sent for +many years to the German courts by Frédéric Melchior Grimm +(1723-1807), the comrade of Diderot and Rousseau, and containing +a <i>compte rendu</i> of the ways and works of Paris, literary +and artistic as well as social. These <i>Leaves</i> not only include +much excellent literary criticism by Diderot, but also gave +occasion to the incomparable <i>salons</i> or accounts of the exhibition +of pictures from the same hand, essays which founded the art +of picture criticism, and which have hardly been surpassed since. +The prize competitions of the Academy were also a considerable +stimulus to literary criticism, though the prevailing taste in +such compositions rather inclined to elegant themes than to +careful studies of analyses. The most characteristic critic of +the mid-century was the abbé Charles Batteux (1713-1780) +who illustrated a tendency of the time by beginning with a treatise +on <i>Les Beaux Arts réduits à un même principe</i> (1746); reduced it +and others into <i>Principes de la littérature</i> (1764) and added in +1771 <i>Les Quatres Poétiques</i> (Aristotle, Horace, Vida and Boileau). +Batteux is a very ingenious critic and his attempt to conciliate +“taste” and “the rules,” though inadequate, is interesting. +Works on the arts in general or on special divisions of them +were not wanting, as, for instance, that of Dubos before alluded +to, the <i>Essai sur la peinture</i> of Diderot and others. Critically +annotated editions of the great French writers also came into +fashion, and were no longer written by mere pedants. Of these +Voltaire’s edition of Corneille was the most remarkable, and his +annotations, united separately under the title of <i>Commentaire +sur Corneille</i>, form not the least important portion of his works. +Even older writers, looked down upon though they were by the +general taste of the day, received a share of this critical interest. +In the earlier portion of the century Nicolas Lenglet-Dufresnoy +(1674-1755) and Bernard de la Monnoye (1641-1728) devoted +their attention to Rabelais, Regnier, Villon, Marot and others. +Étienne Barbazan (1696-1770) and P. J. B. Le Grand d’Aussy +(1737-1800) gathered and brought into notice the long scattered +and unknown rather than neglected fabliaux of the middle ages. +Even the chansons de geste attracted the notice of the Comte +de Caylus (1692-1765) and the Comte de Tressan (1705-1783). +The latter, in his <i>Bibliothèque des romans</i>, worked up a large +number of the old epics into a form suited to the taste of the +century. In his hands they became lively tales of the kind +suited to readers of Voltaire and Crébillon. But in this travestied +form they had considerable influence both in France and abroad. +By these publications attention was at least called to early +French literature, and when it had been once called, a more +serious and appreciative study became merely a matter of time. +The method of much of the literary criticism of the close of this +period was indeed deplorable enough. Jean François de la +Harpe (1739-1803), who though a little later in time as to most +of his critical productions is perhaps its most representative +figure, shows criticism in one of its worst forms. The critic +specially abhorred by Sterne, who looked only at the stop-watch, +was a kind of prophecy of La Harpe, who lays it down distinctly +that a beauty, however beautiful, produced in spite of rules is +a “monstrous beauty” and cannot be allowed. But such a +writer is a natural enough expression of an expiring principle. +The year after the death of La Harpe Sainte-Beuve was born.</p> + +<p><i>18th-Century Savants.</i>—In science and general erudition the +18th century in France was at first much occupied with the +mathematical studies for which the French genius is so peculiarly +adapted, which the great discoveries of Descartes had made +possible and popular, and which those of his supplanter Newton +only made more popular still. Voltaire took to himself the credit, +which he fairly deserves, of first introducing the Newtonian +system into France, and it was soon widely popular—even ladies +devoting themselves to the exposition of mathematical subjects, +as in the case of Gabrielle de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet +(1706-1749) Voltaire’s “divine Émilie.” Indeed ladies played +a great part in the literary and scientific activity of the century, +by actual contribution sometimes, but still more by continuing +and extending the tradition of “salons.” The duchesse du +Maine, Mesdames de Lambert, de Tencin, Geoffrin, du Deffand, +Necker, and above all, the baronne d’Holbach (whose husband, +however, was here the principal personage) presided over coteries +which became more and more “philosophical.” Many of the +greatest mathematicians of the age, such as de Moivre and +Laplace, were French by birth, while others like Euler belonged +to French-speaking races, and wrote in French. The physical +sciences were also ardently cultivated, the impulse to them +being given partly by the generally materialistic tendency of +the age, partly by the Newtonian system, and partly also by the +extended knowledge of the world provided by the circumnavigatory +voyage of Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), and +other travels. P. L. de Moreau Maupertuis (1698-1759) and +C. M. de la Condamine (1701-1774) made long journeys for +scientific purposes and duly recorded their experiences. The +former, a mathematician and physicist of some ability but more +oddity, is chiefly known to literature by the ridicule of Voltaire +in the <i>Diatribe du Docteur Akakia</i>. Jean le Rond, called +d’Alembert (1717-1783), a great mathematician and a writer of +considerable though rather academic excellence, is principally +known from his connexion with and introduction to the <i>Encyclopédie</i>, +of which more presently. Chemistry was also assiduously +cultivated, the baron d’Holbach, among others, being a devotee +thereof, and helping to advance the science to the point where, +at the conclusion of the century, it was illustrated by Berthollet +and Lavoisier. During all this devotion to science in its modern +acceptation, the older and more literary forms of erudition were +not neglected, especially by the illustrious Benedictines of the +abbey of St Maur. Dom Augustin Calmet (1672-1757) the +author of the well-known <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i>, belonged to +this order, and to them also (in particular to Dom Rivet) was +due the beginning of the immense <i>Histoire littéraire de la France</i>, +a work interrupted by the Revolution and long suspended, +but diligently continued since the middle of the 19th century. +Of less orthodox names distinguished for erudition, Nicolas +Fréret (1688-1749), secretary of the Academy, is perhaps the +most remarkable. But in the consideration of the science and +learning in the 18th century from a literary point of view, there +is one name and one book which require particular and, in the +case of the book, somewhat extended mention. The man is +Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1717-1788), the book +the <i>Encyclopédie</i>. The immense <i>Natural History</i> of Buffon, +<span class="sidenote">Buffon.</span> +though not entirely his own, is a remarkable monument +of the union of scientific tastes with literary ability. +As has happened in many similar instances, there is in parts +more literature than science to be found in it; and from the +point of view of the latter, Buffon was far too careless in observation +and far too solicitous of perfection of style and grandiosity +of view. The style of Buffon has sometimes been made the +subject of the highest eulogy, and it is at its best admirable; +but one still feels in it the fault of all serious French prose in this +century before Rousseau—the presence, that is to say, of an +artificial spirit rather than of natural variety and power. The +<span class="sidenote">The Encyclopédie.</span> +<i>Encyclopédie</i>, unquestionably on the whole the most +important French literary production of the century, +if we except the works of Rousseau and Voltaire, was +conducted for a time by Diderot and d’Alembert, afterwards +by Diderot alone. It numbered among its contributors almost +every Frenchman of eminence in letters. It is often spoken of as if, +under the guise of an encyclopaedia, it had been merely a <i>plaidoyer</i> +against religion, but this is entirely erroneous. Whatever anti-ecclesiastical +bent some of the articles may have, the book as a +whole is simply what it professes to be, a dictionary—that is to +say, not merely an historical and critical lexicon, like those of +Bayle and Moreri (indeed history and biography were nominally +excluded), but a dictionary of arts, sciences, trades and technical +terms. Diderot himself had perhaps the greatest faculty of any +man that ever lived for the literary treatment in a workman-like +manner of the most heterogeneous and in some cases rebellious +subjects; and his untiring labour, not merely in writing original +articles, but in editing the contributions of others, determined +the character of the whole work. There is no doubt that it had, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>141</span> +quite independently of any theological or political influence, +an immense share in diffusing and gratifying the taste for general +information.</p> + +<p><i>1789-1830—General Sketch.</i>—The period which elapsed +between the outbreak of the Revolution and the accession of +Charles X. has often been considered a sterile one in point of +literature. As far as mere productiveness goes, this judgment +is hardly correct. No class of literature was altogether neglected +during these stirring five-and-thirty years, the political events +of which have so engrossed the attention of posterity that it +has sometimes been necessary for historians to remind us that +during the height of the Terror and the final disasters of the +empire the theatres were open and the booksellers’ shops patronized. +Journalism, parliamentary eloquence and scientific +writing were especially cultivated, and the former in its modern +sense may almost be said to have been created. But of the higher +products of literature the period may justly be considered to +have been somewhat barren. During the earlier part of it there +is, with the exception of André Chénier, not a single name of the +first or even second order of excellence. Towards the midst +those of Chateaubriand (1768-1848) and Madame de Staël +(1766-1817) stand almost alone; and at the close those of +Courier, Béranger and Lamartine are not seconded by any +others to tell of the magnificent literary burst which was to +follow the publication of <i>Cromwell</i>. Of all departments of +literature, poetry proper was worst represented during this +period. André Chénier was silenced at its opening by the +guillotine. Le Brun and Delille, favoured by an extraordinary +longevity, continued to be admired and followed. It was the +palmy time of descriptive poetry. Louis, marquis de Fontanes +(1757-1821, who deserves rather more special notice as a critic +and an official patron of literature), Castel, Boisjolin, Esmenard, +Berchoux, Ricard, Martin, Gudin, Cournaud, are names which +chiefly survive as those of the authors of scattered attempts to +turn the Encyclopaedia into verse. Charles Julien de Chênedollé +(1769-1833) owes his reputation rather to amiability, and to his +association with men eminent in different ways, such as Rivarol +and Joubert, than to any real power. He has been regarded as +a precursor of Lamartine; but the resemblance is chiefly on +Lamartine’s weakest side; and the stress laid on him recently, +as on Lamartine himself and even on Chénier, is part of a passing +reaction against the school of Hugo. Even more ambitiously, +Luce de Lancival, Campenon, Dumesnil and Parseval de Grand-Maison +endeavoured to write epics, and succeeded rather worse +than the Chapelains and Desmarets of the 17th century. The +characteristic of all this poetry was the description of everything +in metaphor and paraphrase, and the careful avoidance of anything +like directness of expression; and the historians of the +Romantic movement have collected many instances of this +absurdity. Lamartine will be more properly noticed in the next +division. But about the same time as Lamartine, and towards +the end of the present period, there appeared a poet who may +be regarded as the last important echo of Malherbe. This was +Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843), the author of <i>Les Messéniennes</i>, +a writer of very great talent, and, according to the measure +of J. B. Rousseau and Lebrun, no mean poet. It is usual to +reckon Delavigne as transitionary between the two schools, but +in strictness he must be counted with the classicists. Dramatic +poetry exhibited somewhat similar characteristics. The system +of tragedy writing had become purely mechanical, and every +act, almost every scene and situation, had its regular and appropriate +business and language, the former of which the poet was +not supposed to alter at all, and the latter only very slightly. +Poinsinet, La Harpe, M. J. Chénier, Raynouard, de Jouy, Briffaut, +Baour-Lormian, all wrote in this style. Of these Chénier (1764-1811) +had some of the vigour of his brother André, from whom +he was distinguished by more popular political principles and +better fortune. On the other hand, Jean François Ducis (1733-1816), +who passes with Englishmen as a feeble reducer of Shakespeare +to classical rules, passed with his contemporaries as an +introducer into French poetry of strange and revolutionary +novelties. Comedy, on the other hand, fared better, as indeed +it had always fared. Fabre d’Églantine (1755-1794) (the +companion in death of Danton), Collin d’Harleville (1755-1806), +François G. J. S. Andrieux (1759-1833), Picard, Alexandre +Duval, and Népomucène Lemercier (1771-1840) (the most +vigorous of all as a poet and a critic of mark) were the comic +authors of the period, and their works have not suffered the +complete eclipse of the contemporary tragedies which in part +they also wrote. If not exactly worthy successors of Molière, +they are at any rate not unworthy children of Beaumarchais. +In romance writing there is again, until we come to Madame de +Staël, a great want of originality and even of excellence in +workmanship. The works of Madame de Genlis (1746-1830) +exhibit the tendencies of the 18th century to platitude and +noble sentiment at their worst. Madame Cottin (1770-1807), +Madame de Souza (1761-1836), and Madame de Krudener, +exhibited some of the qualities of Madame de Lafayette and +more of those of Madame de Genlis. Joseph Fiévée (1767-1839), +in <i>Le Dot de Suzette</i> and other works, showed some power over the +domestic story; but perhaps the most remarkable work in +point of originality of the time was Xavier de Maistre’s (1763-1852) +<i>Voyage autour de ma chambre</i>, an attempt in quite a +new style, which has been happily followed up by other writers. +Turning to history we find comparatively little written at this +period. Indeed, until quite its close, men were too much occupied +in making history to have time to write it. There is, however, +a considerable body of memoir writers, especially in the earlier +years of the period, and some great names appear even in history +proper. Many of Sismondi’s (1773-1842) best works were +produced during the empire. A. G. P. Brugière, baron de +Barante (1782-1866), though his best-known works date much +later, belongs partially to this time. On the other hand, the +production of philosophical writing, especially in what we may +call applied philosophy, was considerable. The sensationalist +views of Condillac were first continued as by Destutt de Tracy +(1754-1836) and Laromiguière (1756-1837) and subsequently +opposed, in consequence partly of a religious and spiritualist +revival, partly of the influence of foreign schools of thought, +especially the German and the Scotch. The chief philosophical +writers from this latter point of view were Pierre Paul Royer +Collard (1763-1845), F. P. G. Maine de Biran (1776-1824), +and Théodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842). Their influence on +literature, however, was altogether inferior to that of the reactionist +school, of whom Louis Gabriel, vicomte de Bonald +(1754-1840), and Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) were the great +leaders. These latter were strongly political in their tendencies, +and political philosophy received, as was natural, a large share +of the attention of the time. In continuation of the work of +the Philosophes, the most remarkable writer was Constantin +François Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney (1757-1820), whose +<i>Ruines</i> are generally known. On the other hand, others belonging +to that school, such as Necker and Morellet, wrote from the +moderate point of view against revolutionary excesses. Of +the reactionists Bonald is extremely royalist, and carries out in +his <i>Législations primitives</i> somewhat the same patriarchal and +absolutist theories as our own Filmer, but with infinitely greater +<span class="sidenote">Maistre.</span> +genius. As Bonald is royalist and aristocratic, so +Maistre is the advocate of a theocracy pure and +simple, with the pope for its earthly head, and a vigorous despotism +for its system of government. Pierre Simon Ballanche +(1776-1847), often mentioned in the literary memoirs of his +time, wrote among other things <i>Essais de palingénésie sociale</i>, +good in style but vague in substance. Of theology proper there +is almost necessarily little or nothing, the clergy being in the +earlier period proscribed, in the latter part kept in a strict and +somewhat discreditable subjection by the Empire. In moralizing +literature there is one work of the very highest excellence, which, +though not published till long afterwards, belongs in point of +composition to this period. This is the <i>Pensées</i> of Joseph +<span class="sidenote">Joubert.</span> +Joubert (1754-1824), the most illustrious successor +of Pascal and Vauvenargues, and to be ranked perhaps +above both in the literary finish of his maxims, and certainly +above Vauvenargues in the breadth and depth of thought which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>142</span> +they exhibit. In pure literary criticism more particularly, +Joubert, though exhibiting some inconsistencies due to his time, +is astonishingly penetrating and suggestive. Of science and +erudition the time was fruitful. At an early period of it appeared +the remarkable work of Pierre Cabanis (1757-1808), the <i>Rapports +du physique et du morale de l’homme</i>, a work in which physiology +is treated from the extreme materialist point of view but with +all the liveliness and literary excellence of the Philosophe movement +at its best. Another physiological work of great merit +at this period was the <i>Traité de la vie et de la mort</i> of Bichat, +and the example set by these works was widely followed; while +in other branches of science Laplace, Lagrange, Haüy, Berthollet, +&c., produced contributions of the highest value. From the +literary point of view, however, the chief interest of this time +is centred in two individual names, those of Chateaubriand and +Madame de Staël, and in three literary developments of a more +or less novel character, which were all of the highest importance +in shaping the course which French literature has taken since +1824. One of these developments was the reactionary movement +of Maistre and Bonald, which in its turn largely influenced +Chateaubriand, then Lamennais and Montalembert, and was +later represented in French literature in different guises, chiefly +by Louis Veuillot (1815-1883) and Mgr Dupanloup (1802-1878). +The second and third, closely connected, were the immense +advances made by parliamentary eloquence and by political +writing, the latter of which, by the hand of Paul Louis Courier +(1773-1825), contributed for the first time an undoubted masterpiece +to French literature. The influence of the two combined +has since raised journalism to even a greater pitch of power in +France than in any other country. It is in the development of +these new openings for literature, and in the cast and complexion +which they gave to its matter, that the real literary importance +of the Revolutionary period consists; just as it is in the new +elements which they supplied for the treatment of such subjects +that the literary value of the authors of <i>René</i> and <i>De l’Allemagne</i> +mainly lies. We have already alluded to some of the beginnings +of periodical and journalistic letters in France. For some time, +in the hands of Bayle, Basnage, Des Maizeaux, Jurieu, Leclerc, +periodical literature consisted mainly of a series, more or less +disconnected, of pamphlets, with occasional extracts from +forthcoming works, critical <i>adversaria</i> and the like. Of a more +regular kind were the often-mentioned <i>Journal de Trévoux</i> and +<i>Mercure de France</i>, and later the <i>Année littéraire</i> of Fréron and +the like. The <i>Correspondance</i> of Grimm also, as we have pointed +out, bore considerable resemblance to a modern monthly review, +though it was addressed to a very few persons. Of political +news there was, under a despotism, naturally very little. 1789, +however, saw a vast change in this respect. An enormous +efflorescence of periodical literature at once took place, and a +few of the numerous journals founded in that year or soon afterwards +survived for a considerable time. A whole class of authors +arose who pretended to be nothing more than journalists, while +many writers distinguished for more solid contributions to literature +took part in the movement, and not a few active politicians +contributed. Thus to the original staff of the <i>Moniteur</i>, or, as +it was at first called, <i>La Gazette Nationale</i>, La Harpe, Lacretelle, +Andrieux, Dominique Joseph Garat (1749-1833) and Pierre +Ginguené (1748-1826) were attached. Among the writers of +the <i>Journal de Paris</i> André Chénier had been ranked. Fontanes +contributed to many royalist and moderate journals. Guizot +and Morellet, representatives respectively of the 19th and the +18th century, shared in the <i>Nouvelles politiques</i>, while Bertin, +Fievée and J. L. Geoffroy (1743-1814), a critic of peculiar +acerbity, contributed to the <i>Journal de l’empire</i>, afterwards +turned into the still existing <i>Journal des débats</i>. With Geoffroy, +François Bénoit Hoffman (1760-1828), Jean F. J. Dussault +(1769-1824) and Charles F. Dorimond, abbé de Féletz (1765-1850), +constituted a quartet of critics sometimes spoken of as +“the <i>Débats</i> four,” though they were by no means all friends. +Of active politicians Marat (<i>L’Ami du peuple</i>), Mirabeau (<i>Courrier +de Provence</i>), Barère (<i>Journal des débats et des décrets</i>), Brissot +(<i>Patriote français</i>), Hébert (<i>Père Duchesne</i>), Robespierre (<i>Défenseur +de la constitution</i>), and Tallien (<i>La Sentinelle</i>) were the most +remarkable who had an intimate connexion with journalism. +On the other hand, the type of the journalist pure and simple +is Camille Desmoulins (1759-1794), one of the most brilliant, in a +literary point of view, of the short-lived celebrities of the time. +Of the same class were Pelletier, Durozoir, Loustalot, Royou. +As the immediate daily interest in politics drooped, there were +formed periodicals of a partly political and partly literary +character. Such had been the <i>décade philosophique</i>, which +counted Cabanis, Chénier, and De Tracy among its contributors, +and this was followed by the <i>Revue française</i> at a later period, +which was in its turn succeeded by the <i>Revue des deux mondes</i>. +On the other hand, parliamentary eloquence was even more +important than journalism during the early period of the Revolution. +Mirabeau naturally stands at the head of orators of this +class, and next to him may be ranked the well-known names of +Malouet and Meunier among constitutionalists; of Robespierre, +Marat and Danton, the triumvirs of the Mountain; of Maury, +Cazalès and the vicomte de Mirabeau, among the royalists; +and above all of the Girondist speakers Barnave, Vergniaud, +and Lanjuinais. The last named survived to take part in the +revival of parliamentary discussion after the Restoration. But +the permanent contributions to French literature of this period +of voluminous eloquence are, as frequently happens in such cases, +by no means large. The union of the journalist and the parliamentary +spirit produced, however, in Paul Louis Courier a +<span class="sidenote">Courier.</span> +master of style. Courier spent the greater part of +his life, tragically cut short, in translating the classics +and studying the older writers of France, in which study he +learnt thoroughly to despise the pseudo-classicism of the 18th +century. It was not till he was past forty that he took to political +writing, and the style of his pamphlets, and their wonderful +irony and vigour, at once placed them on the level of the very +best things of the kind. Along with Courier should be mentioned +Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), who, though partly a romance +writer and partly a philosophical author, was mainly a politician +and an orator, besides being fertile in articles and pamphlets. +Lamennais, like Lamartine, will best be dealt with later, and the +same may be said of Béranger; but Chateaubriand and Madame +de Staël must be noticed here. The former represents, in the +influence which changed the literature of the 18th century into +the literature of the 19th, the vague spirit of unrest and “Weltschmerz,” +the affection for the picturesque qualities of nature, +the religious spirit occasionally turning into mysticism, and the +respect, sure to become more and more definite and appreciative, +for antiquity. He gives in short the romantic and conservative +<span class="sidenote">Madame de Staël.</span> +element. Madame de Staël (1766-1817) on the other +hand, as became a daughter of Necker, retained a +great deal of the Philosophe character and the traditions +of the 18th century, especially its liberalism, its <i>sensibilité</i>, and +its thirst for general information; to which, however, she +added a cosmopolitan spirit, and a readiness to introduce into +France the literary and social, as well as the political and philosophical, +peculiarities of other countries to which the 18th century, +in France at least, had been a stranger, and which Chateaubriand +himself, notwithstanding his excursions into English literature, +had been very far from feeling. She therefore contributed to +the positive and liberal side of the future movement. The +absolute literary importance of the two was very different. +Madame de Staël’s early writings were of the critical kind, +half aesthetic half ethical, of which the 18th century had been +fond, and which their titles, <i>Lettres sur J. J. Rousseau</i>, <i>De l’influence +des passions</i>, <i>De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports +avec les institutions sociales</i>, sufficiently show. Her romances, +<i>Delphine</i> and <i>Corinne</i>, had immense literary influence at the time. +Still more was this the case with <i>De l’Allemagne</i>, which practically +opened up to the rising generation in France the till then unknown +<span class="sidenote">Chateaubriand.</span> +treasures of literature and philosophy, which during +the most glorious half century of her literary history +Germany had, sometimes on hints taken from France +herself, been accumulating. The literary importance of Chateaubriand +(1768-1848) is far greater, while his literary influence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>143</span> +can hardly be exaggerated. Chateaubriand’s literary father was +Rousseau, and his voyage to America helped to develop the seeds +which Rousseau had sown. In <i>René</i> and other works of the +same kind, the naturalism of Rousseau received a still further +development. But it was not in mere naturalism that Chateaubriand +was to find his most fertile and most successful theme. +It was, on the contrary, in the rehabilitation of Christianity as +an inspiring force in literature. The 18th century had used +against religion the method of ridicule; Chateaubriand, by +genius rather than by reasoning, set up against this method that +of poetry and romance. “Christianity,” says he, almost in +so many words, “is the most poetical of all religions, the most +attractive, the most fertile in literary, artistic and social results.” +This theme he develops with the most splendid language, and +with every conceivable advantage of style, in the <i>Génie du +Christianisme</i> and the <i>Martyrs</i>. The splendour of imagination, +the summonings of history and literature to supply effective and +touching illustrations, analogies and incidents, the rich colouring +so different from the peculiarly monotonous and grey tones of +the masters of the 18th century, and the fervid admiration for +nature which were Chateaubriand’s main attractions and characteristics, +could not fail to have an enormous literary influence. +Indeed he has been acclaimed, with more reason than is usually +found in such acclamations, as the founder of comparative <i>and</i> +imaginative literary criticism in France if not in Europe. The +Romantic school acknowledged, and with justice, its direct +indebtedness to him.</p> + +<p><i>Literature since 1830.</i>—In dealing with the last period of the +history of French literature and that which was introduced by +the literary revolution of 1830 and has continued, in phases of +only partial change, to the present day, a slight alteration of +treatment is requisite. The subdivisions of literature have lately +become so numerous, and the contributions to each have reached +such an immense volume, that it is impossible to give more than +cursory notice, or indeed allusion, to most of them. It so +happens, however, that the purely literary characteristics of this +period, though of the most striking and remarkable, are confined +to a few branches of literature. The character of the 19th +century in France has hitherto been at least as strongly marked +as that of any previous period. In the middle ages men of letters +followed each other in the cultivation of certain literary forms +for long centuries. The <i>chanson de geste</i>, the Arthurian legend, +the <i>roman d’aventure</i>, the <i>fabliau</i>, the allegorical poem, the +rough dramatic <i>jeu</i>, mystery and farce, served successively as +moulds into which the thought and writing impulse of generations +of authors were successively cast, often with little attention +to the suitability of form and subject. The end of the 15th +century, and still more the 16th, owing to the vast extension +of thought and knowledge then introduced, finally broke up the +old forms, and introduced the practice of treating each subject +in a manner more or less appropriate to it, and whether appropriate +or not, freely selected by the author. At the same time +a vast but somewhat indiscriminate addition was made to the +actual vocabulary of the language. The 17th and 18th centuries +witnessed a process of restriction once more to certain forms +and strict imitation of predecessors, combined with attention +to purely arbitrary rules, the cramping and impoverishing effect +of this (in Fénelon’s words) being counterbalanced partly by +the efforts of individual genius, and still more by the constant +and steady enlargement of the range of thought, the choice of +subjects, and the familiarity with other literature, both of the +ancient and modern world. The literary work of the 19th +century and of the great Romantic movement which began in its +second quarter was to repeat on a far larger scale the work of the +16th, to break up and discard such literary forms as had become +useless or hopelessly stiff, to give strength, suppleness and +variety to such as were retained, to invent new ones where +necessary, to enrich the language by importations, inventions +and revivals, and, above all, to bring into prominence the principle +of individualism. Authors and even books, rather than groups +and kinds, demand principal attention.</p> + +<p>The result of this revolution is naturally most remarkable in +the <i>belles-lettres</i> and the kindred department of history. Poetry, +not dramatic, has been revived; prose romance and literary +criticism have been brought to a perfection previously unknown; +and history has produced works more various, if not more remarkable, +than at any previous stage of the language. Of all these +branches we shall therefore endeavour to give some detailed +account. But the services done to the language were not limited +to the strictly literary branches of literature. Modern French, +if it lacks, as it probably does lack, the statuesque precision and +elegance of prose style to which between 1650 and 1800 all else +was sacrificed, has become a much more suitable instrument +for the accurate and copious treatment of positive and concrete +subjects. These subjects have accordingly been treated in an +abundance corresponding to that manifested in other countries, +though the literary importance of the treatment has perhaps +proportionately declined. We cannot even attempt to indicate +the innumerable directions of scientific study which this copious +industry has taken, and must confine ourselves to those which +come more immediately under the headings previously adopted. +In philosophy proper France, like other nations, has been more +remarkable for attention to the historical side of the matter +than for the production of new systems; and the principal +exception among her philosophical writers, Auguste Comte (1793-1857), +besides inclining, as far as his matter went to the political +and scientific rather than to the purely philosophical side (which +indeed he regarded as antiquated), was not very remarkable +merely as a man of letters. Victor Cousin (1792-1867), on the +other hand, almost a brilliant man of letters and for a time +regarded as something of a philosophical apostle preaching +“eclecticism,” betook himself latterly to biographical and other +miscellaneous writing, especially on the famous French ladies of +the 17th century, and is likely to be remembered chiefly in this +department, though not to be forgotten in that of philosophical +history and criticism. The same curious declension was observable +in the much younger Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893), +who, beginning with philosophical studies, and always maintaining +a strong tincture of philosophical determinism, applied himself +later, first to literary history and criticism in his famous <i>Histoire +de la littérature anglaise</i> (1864), and then to history proper in +his still more famous and far more solidly based <i>Origines de la +France contemporaine</i> (1876). To him, however, we must recur +under the head of literary criticism. And not dissimilar +phenomena, not so much of inconstancy to philosophy as of a +tendency towards the applied rather than the pure branches of +the subject, are noticeable in Edgar Quinet (1803-1875), in +Charles de Rémusat (1797-1875), and in Ernest Renan (1823-1892), +the first of whom began by translating Herder while the +second and third devoted themselves early to scholastic philosophy, +de Rémusat dealing with Abelard (1845) and Anselm +(1856), Renan with Averroes (1852). More single-minded +devotion to at least the historical side was shown by Jean +Philibert Damiron (1794-1862), who published in 1842 a <i>Cours +de philosophie</i> and many minor works at different times; but +the inconstancy recurs in Jules Simon (1814-1896), who, in the +earlier part of his life a professor of philosophy and a writer of +authority on the Greek philosophers (especially in <i>Histoire de +l’école d’Alexandrie</i>, 1844-1845), began before long to take an +active and, towards the close of his life-work, all but a foremost +part in politics. In theology the chief name of great literary +eminence in the earlier part of the century is that of Lamennais, +of whom more presently, in the later, that of Renan again. +But Charles Forbes de Montalembert (1810-1870), an historian +with a strong theological tendency, deserves notice; and among +ecclesiastics who have been orators and writers the père Jean +Baptiste Henri Lacordaire (1802-1861), a pupil of Lamennais +who returned to orthodoxy but always kept to the Liberal side; +the père Célestin Joseph Félix (1810-1891), a Jesuit teacher and +preacher of eminence; and the père Didon (1840-1900), a very +popular preacher and writer who, though thoroughly orthodox, +did not escape collision with his superiors. On the Protestant +side Athanase Coquerel (1820-1875) is the most remarkable +name. Recently Paul Sabatier (b. 1858) has displayed, especially +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>144</span> +in dealing with Saint Francis of Assisi, much power of literary +and religious sympathy and a style somewhat modelled on that +of Renan, but less unctuous and effeminate. There are strong +philosophical tendencies, and at least a revolt against the religious +as well as philosophical ideas of the Encyclopédists, in +the <i>Pensées</i> of Joubert, while the hybrid position characteristic +of the 19th century is particularly noticeable in Étienne Pivert de +Sénancour (1770-1846), whose principal work, <i>Obermann</i> (1804), +had an extraordinary influence on its own and the next generation +in the direction of melancholy moralizing. This tone was notably +taken up towards the other end of the century by Amiel (<i>q.v.</i>), +who, however, does not strictly belong to <i>French</i> literature: +while in Ximénès Doudon (1800-1872), author of <i>Mélanges et +lettres</i> posthumously published, we find more of a return to the +attitude of Joubert—literary criticism occupying a very large +part of his reflections. Political philosophy and its kindred +sciences have naturally received a large share of attention. +Towards the middle of the century there was a great development +of socialist and fanciful theorizing on politics, with which +the names of Claude Henri, comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), +Charles Fourier (1772-1837), Étienne Cabet (1788-1856), and +others are connected. As political economists Frédéric Bastiat +(1801-1850), L. G. L. Guilhaud de Lavergne (1809-1880), Louis +Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881), and Michel Chevalier (1806-1879) +may be noticed. In Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) France +produced a political observer of a remarkably acute, moderate +and reflective character, and Armand Carrel (1800-1836), whose +life was cut short in a duel, was a real man of letters, as well as +a brilliant journalist and an honest if rather violent party +politician. The name of Jean Louis Eugène Lerminier (1803-1857) +is of wide repute for legal and constitutional writings, and +that of Henri, baron de Jomini (1779-1869) is still more celebrated +as a military historian; while that of François Lenormant (1837-1883) +holds a not dissimilar position in archaeology. With the +publications devoted to physical science proper we do not attempt +to meddle. Philology, however, demands a brief notice. In +classical studies France has till recently hardly maintained the +position which might be expected of the country of Scaliger +and Casaubon. She has, however, produced some considerable +Orientalists, such as Champollion the younger, Burnouf, Silvestre +de Sacy and Stanislas Julien. The foundation of Romance philology +was due, indeed, to the foreigners Wolf and Diez. But +early in the century the curiosity as to the older literature of +France created by Barbazan, Tressan and others continued to +extend. Dominique Martin Méon (1748-1829) published many +unprinted fabliaux, gave the whole of the French <i>Renart</i> cycle, +with the exception of <i>Renart le contrefait</i>, and edited the <i>Roman +de la rose</i>. Charles Claude Fauriel (1772-1844) and François +Raynouard (1761-1836) dealt elaborately with Provençal +poetry as well as partially with that of the trouvères; and the +latter produced his comprehensive <i>Lexique romane</i>. These +examples were followed by many other writers, who edited +manuscript works and commented on them, always with zeal +and sometimes with discretion. Foremost among these must +be mentioned Paulin Paris (1800-1881) who for fifty years served +the cause of old French literature with untiring energy, great +literary taste, and a pleasant and facile pen. His selections from +manuscripts, his <i>Romancero français</i>, his editions of <i>Garin le +Loherain</i> and <i>Berte aus grans piés</i>, and his <i>Romans de la table +ronde</i> may especially be mentioned. Soon, too, the Benedictine +<i>Histoire littéraire</i>, so long interrupted, was resumed under M. +Paris’s general management, and has proceeded nearly to the +end of the 14th century. Among its contents M. Paris’s dissertations +on the later <i>chansons de gestes</i> and the early song +writers, M. Victor le Clerc’s on the <i>fabliaux</i>, and M. Littré’s +on the <i>romans d’aventures</i> may be specially noticed. For some +time indeed the work of French editors was chargeable with a +certain lack of critical and philological accuracy. This reproach, +however, was wiped off by the efforts of a band of younger +scholars, chiefly pupils of the École des Chartes, with MM. Gaston +Paris (1839-1903) and Paul Meyer at their head. Of M. Paris +in particular it may be said that no scholar in the subject has ever +combined literary and linguistic competence more admirably. +The Société des Anciens Textes Français was formed for the purpose +of publishing scholarly editions of inedited works, and a lexicon +of the older tongue by M. Godefroy at last supplemented, though +not quite with equal accomplishment, the admirable dictionary +in which Émile Littré (1801-1881), at the cost of a life’s labour, +embodied the whole vocabulary of the classical French language. +Meanwhile the period between the middle ages proper and the +17th century has not lacked its share of this revival of attention. +To the literature between Villon and Regnier especial attention +was paid by the early Romantics, and Sainte-Beuve’s <i>Tableau +historique et critique de la poésie et du théâtre au seizième siècle</i> +was one of the manifestoes of the school. Since the appearance +of that work in 1828 editions with critical comments of the +literature of this period have constantly multiplied, aided by the +great fancy for tastefully produced works which exists among +the richer classes in France; and there are probably now few +countries in which works of old authors, whether in cheap reprints +or in <i>éditions de luxe</i> can be more readily procured.</p> + +<p><i>The Romantic Movement.</i>—It is time, however, to return to the +literary revolution itself, and its more purely literary results. +At the accession of Charles X. France possessed three +writers, and perhaps only three, of already remarkable +<span class="sidenote">Béranger.</span> +eminence, if we except Chateaubriand, who was already of a +past generation. These three were Pierre Jean de Béranger +(1780-1857), Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), and Hugues +Félicité Robert Lamennais (1782-1854). The first belongs +definitely in manner, despite his striking originality of <i>nuance</i>, +to the past. He has remnants of the old periphrases, the cumbrous +mythological allusions, the poetical “properties” of French +verse. He has also the older and somewhat narrow limitations +of a French poet; foreigners are for him mere barbarians. At +the same time his extraordinary lyrical faculty, his excellent wit, +which makes him a descendant of Rabelais and La Fontaine, +and his occasional touches of pathos made him deserve and +obtain something more than successes of occasion. Béranger, +moreover, was very far from being the mere improvisatore +which those who cling to the inspirationist theory of poetry +would fain see in him. His studies in style and composition were +persistent, and it was long before he attained the firm and brilliant +manner which distinguishes him. Béranger’s talent, however, +was still too much a matter of individual genius to have great +literary influence, and he formed no school. It was different +<span class="sidenote">Lamartine.</span> +with Lamartine, who was, nevertheless, like Béranger, +a typical Frenchman. The <i>Méditations</i> and the +<i>Harmonies</i> exhibit a remarkable transition between +the old school and the new. In going direct to nature, in borrowing +from her striking outlines, vivid and contrasted tints, +harmony and variety of sound, the new poet showed himself +an innovator of the best class. In using romantic and religious +associations, and expressing them in affecting language, he was +the Chateaubriand of verse. But with all this he retained some +of the vices of the classical school. His versification, harmonious +as it is, is monotonous, and he does not venture into the bold +lyrical forms which true poetry loves. He has still the horror of +the <i>mot propre</i>; he is always spiritualizing and idealizing, and +his style and thought have a double portion of the feminine +and almost flaccid softness which had come to pass for grace in +French. The last of the trio, Lamennais, represents an altogether +<span class="sidenote">Lamennais.</span> +bolder and rougher genius. Strongly influenced by +the Catholic reaction, Lamennais also shows the +strongest possible influence of the revolutionary spirit. +His earliest work, the <i>Essai sur l’indifférence en matière de +religion</i> (1817 and 1818) was a defence of the church on curiously +unecclesiastical lines. It was written in an ardent style, full of +illustrations, and extremely ambitious in character. The plan +was partly critical and partly constructive. The first part disposed +of the 18th century; the second, adopting the theory of +papal absolutism which Joseph de Maistre had already advocated, +proceeded to base it on a supposed universal consent. The after +history of Lamennais was perhaps not an unnatural recoil from +this; but it is sufficient here to point out that in his prose, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>145</span> +especially as afterwards developed in the apocalyptic <i>Paroles +d’un croyant</i> (1839) are to be discerned many of the tendencies +of the Romantic school, particularly its hardy and picturesque +choice of language, and the disdain of established and accepted +methods which it professed. The signs of the revolution itself +were, as was natural, first given in periodical literature. The +feudalist affectations of Chateaubriand and the legitimists +excited a sort of aesthetic affection for Gothicism, and Walter +Scott became one of the most favourite authors in France. +Soon was started the periodical <i>La Muse française</i>, in which the +names of Hugo, Vigny, Deschamps and Madame de Girardin +appear. Almost all the writers in this periodical were eager +royalists, and for some time the battle was still fought on political +grounds. There could, however, be no special connexion +between classical drama and liberalism; and the liberal journal, +the Globe, with no less a person than Sainte-Beuve among its +contributors, declared definite war against classicism in the +drama. The chief “classical” organs were the <i>Constitutionnel</i>, +the <i>Journal des débats</i>, and after a time and not exclusively, +the <i>Revue des deux mondes</i>. Soon the question became purely +literary, and the Romantic school proper was born in the famous +<i>cénacle</i> or clique in which Hugo was chief poet, Sainte-Beuve +chief critic, and Gautier, Gérard de Nerval, the brothers Émile +(1791-1871) and Antony (1800-1869), Deschamps, Petrus Borel +(1809-1859) and others were officers. Alfred de Vigny and +Alfred de Musset stand somewhat apart, and so does Charles +Nodier (1780-1844), a versatile and voluminous writer, the very +variety and number of whose works have somewhat prevented +the individual excellence of any of them from having justice +done to it. The objects of the school, which was at first violently +opposed, so much so that certain academicians actually petitioned +the king to forbid the admission of any Romantic piece at the +Théâtre Français, were, briefly stated, the burning of everything +which had been adored, and the adoring of everything which +had been burnt. They would have no unities, no arbitrary +selection of subjects, no restraints on variety of versification, no +academically limited vocabulary, no considerations of artificial +beauty, and, above all, no periphrastic expression. The <i>mot +propre</i>, the calling of a spade a spade, was the great commandment +of Romanticism; but it must be allowed that what was +taken away in periphrase was made up in adjectives. Musset, +who was very much of a free-lance in the contest, maintained +indeed that the <i>differentia</i> of the Romantic was the copious use +of this part of speech. All sorts of epithets were invented to +distinguish the two parties, of which <i>flamboyant</i> and <i>grisâtre</i> +are perhaps the most accurate and expressive pair—the former +serving to denote the gorgeous tints and bold attempts of the +new school, the latter the grey colour and monotonous outlines +of the old. The representation of <i>Hernani</i> in 1830 was the culmination +of the struggle, and during great part of the reign of +Louis Philippe almost all the younger men of letters in France +were Romantics. The representation of the <i>Lucrèce</i> of François +Ponsard (1814-1867) in 1846 is often quoted as the herald or sign +of a classical reaction. But this was only apparent, and signified, +if it signified anything, merely that the more juvenile excesses +of the Romantics were out of date. All the greatest men of +letters of France since 1830 have been on the innovating side, +and all without exception, whether intentionally or not, have had +their work coloured by the results of the movement, and of those +which have succeeded it as developments rather than reactions.</p> + +<p><i>Drama and Poetry since 1830.</i>—Although the immediate +subject on which the battles of Classics and Romantics arose +was dramatic poetry, the dramatic results of the movement +have not been those of greatest value or most permanent character. +The principal effect in the long run has been the introduction +of a species of play called <i>drame</i>, as opposed to regular +comedy and tragedy, admitting of much freer treatment than +either of these two as previously understood in French, and +lending itself in some measure to the lengthy and disjointed +action, the multiplicity of personages, and the absence of stock +characters which characterized the English stage in its palmy +days. All Victor Hugo’s dramatic works are of this class, and +each, as it was produced or published (<i>Cromwell</i>, <i>Hernani</i>, +<i>Marion de l’Orme</i>, <i>Le Roi s’amuse</i>, <i>Lucrèce Borgia</i>, <i>Marie Tudor</i>, +<i>Ruy Blas</i> and <i>Les Burgraves</i>), was a literary event, and excited +the most violent discussion—the author’s usual plan being to +prefix a prose preface of a very militant character to his work. +A still more melodramatic variety of <i>drame</i> was that chiefly +represented by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), whose <i>Henri III</i> +and <i>Antony</i>, to which may be added later <i>La Tour de Nesle</i> +and <i>Mademoiselle de Belleisle</i>, were almost as much rallying +points for the early Romantics as the dramas of Hugo, despite +their inferior literary value. At the same time Alexandre Soumet +(1788-1845), in <i>Norma</i>, <i>Une Fête de Néron</i>, &c., and Casimir +Delavigne in <i>Marino Faliero</i>, <i>Louis XI</i>, &c., maintained a +somewhat closer adherence to the older models. The classical +or semi-classical reaction of the last years of Louis Philippe was +represented in tragedy by Ponsard (<i>Lucrèce</i>, <i>Agnes de Méranie</i>, +<i>Charlotte Corday</i>, <i>Ulysse</i>, and several comedies), and on the comic +side, to a certain extent, by Émile Augier (1820-1889) in +<i>L’Aventurière</i>, <i>Le Gendre de M. Poirier</i>, <i>Le Fils de Giboyer</i>, &c. +During almost the whole period Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) +poured forth innumerable comedies of the vaudeville order, +which, without possessing much literary value, attained immense +popularity. For the last half-century the realist development +of Romanticism has had the upper hand in dramatic composition, +its principal representatives being on the one side Victorien +Sardou (1831-1909), who in <i>Nos Intimes</i>, <i>La Famille Benoîton</i>, +<i>Rabagas</i>, <i>Dora</i>, &c., chiefly devoted himself to the satirical +treatment of manners, and Alexandre Dumas <i>fils</i> (1824-1895), +author in 1852 of the famous <i>Dame aux camélias</i>, who in such +pieces as <i>Les Idées de Madame Aubray</i> and <i>L’Étrangère</i> rather +busied himself with morals and “problems,” while his <i>Dame +aux camélias</i> (1852) is sometimes ranked as the first of such things +in “modern” style. Certain isolated authors also deserve +notice, such as Joseph Autran (1813-1877), a poet and academician +having some resemblance to Lamartine, whose <i>Fille +d’Æschyle</i> created for him a dramatic reputation which he did +not attempt to follow up, and Gabriel Legouvé (b. 1807), whose +<i>Adrienne Lecouvreur</i> was assisted to popularity by the admirable +talent of Rachel. A special variety of drama of the first literary +importance has also been cultivated in this century under the +title of <i>scènes</i> or <i>proverbes</i>, slight dramatic sketches in which the +dialogue and style are of even more importance than the action. +The best of all of these are those of Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), +whose <i>Il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée</i>, <i>On ne badine +pas avec l’amour</i>, &c., are models of grace and wit. Among his +followers may be mentioned especially Octave Feuillet (1821-1890). +Few social dramas of the kind in modern times have +attained a greater success than <i>Le Monde où l’on s’ennuie</i> (1868) +of Édouard Pailleron (1834-1899). (See also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Drama</a></span>.)</p> + +<p>In poetry proper, as in drama, Victor Hugo showed the way. +In him all the Romantic characteristics were expressed and +embodied—disregard of arbitrary critical rules, free +choice of subject, variety and vigour of metre, splendour +<span class="sidenote">Victor Hugo.</span> +and sonorousness of diction, abundant “local colour,” +and that irrepressible individualism which is one of the chief, +though not perhaps the chief, of the symptoms. If the careful +attention to form which is also characteristic of the movement is +less apparent in him than in some of his followers, it is not +because it is absent, but because the enthusiastic conviction +with which he attacked every subject somewhat diverts attention +from it. As with the merits so with the defects. A deficient +sense of the ludicrous which characterized many of the Romantics +was strongly apparent in their leader, as was also an equally +representative grandiosity, and a fondness for the introduction +of foreign and unfamiliar words, especially proper names, +which occasionally produces an effect of burlesque. Victor +Hugo’s earliest poetical works, his chiefly royalist and political +<i>Odes</i>, were cast in the older and accepted forms, but already +displayed astonishing poetical qualities. But it was in the +<i>Ballades</i> (for instance, the splendid <i>Pas d’armes du roi Jean</i>, +written in verses of three syllables) and the <i>Orientales</i> (of which +may be taken for a sample the sixth section of <i>Navarin</i>, a perfect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>146</span> +torrent of outlandish terms poured forth in the most admirable +verse, or <i>Les Djinns</i>, where some of the stanzas have lines of +two syllables each) that the grand provocation was thrown +to the believers in alexandrines, careful caesuras and strictly +separated couplets. <i>Les Feuilles d’automne</i>, <i>Les Chants du +crépuscule</i>, <i>Les Voix intérieures</i>, <i>Les Rayons et les ombres</i>, the +productions of the next twenty years, were quieter in style and +tone, but no less full of poetical spirit. The Revolution of 1848, +the establishment of the empire and the poet’s exile brought +about a fresh determination of his genius to lyrical subjects. +<i>Les Châtiments</i> and <i>La Légende des siècles</i>, the one political, the +other historical, reach perhaps the high-water mark of French +verse; and they were followed by the philosophical <i>Contemplations</i>, +the lighter <i>Chansons des rues et des bois</i>, the <i>Année +terrible</i>, the second <i>Légende des siècles</i>, and the later work to be +found noticed <i>sub nom</i>. We have been thus particular here +because the literary productiveness of Victor Hugo himself has +been the measure and sample of the whole literary productiveness +of France on the poetical side. At five-and-twenty he was +acknowledged as a master, at seventy-five he was a master still. +His poetical influence has been represented in three different +schools, from which very few of the poetical writers of the +century can be excluded. These few we may notice first. Alfred +<span class="sidenote">Musset.</span> +de Musset, a writer of great genius, felt part of the +Romantic inspiration very strongly, but was on the +whole unfortunately influenced by Byron, and partly out of +wilfulness, partly from a natural want of persevering industry +and vigour, allowed himself to be careless and even slovenly +in composition. Notwithstanding this, many of his lyrics are +among the finest poems in the language, and his verse, careless +as it is, has extraordinary natural grace. Auguste Barbier +(1805-1882) whose <i>Iambes</i> shows an extraordinary command of +nervous and masculine versification, also comes in here; and the +Breton poet, Auguste Brizeux (1803-1858), much admired by +some, together with Hégésippe Moreau, an unequal writer +possessing some talent, Pierre Dupont (1821-1870), one of much +greater gifts, and Gustave Nadaud (1820-1893), a follower of +Béranger, also deserve mention. Of the school of Lamartine +rather than of Hugo are Alfred de Vigny (1799-1865) and +Victor de Laprade (1812-1887), the former a writer of little +bulk and somewhat over-fastidious, but possessing one of the +most correct and elegant styles to be found in French, with a +curious restrained passion and a complicated originality, the +latter a meditative and philosophical poet, like Vigny an admirable +writer, but somewhat deficient in pith and substance, as +well as in warmth and colour. Madame Ackermann (1813-1890) +is the chief philosophical poetess of France, and this style has +recently been very popular; but for actual poetical powers, +Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859) perhaps excelled her, +though in a looser and more sentimental fashion. The poetical +schools which more directly derive from the Romantic movement +as represented by Hugo are three in number, corresponding in +point of time with the first outburst of the movement, with the +period of reaction already alluded to, and with the closing years +of the second empire. Of the first by far the most distinguished +member was Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), the most perfect +<span class="sidenote">Gautier.</span> +poet in point of form that France has produced. When +quite a boy he devoted himself to the study of 16th-century +masters, and though he acknowledged the supremacy +of Hugo, his own talent was of an individual order, and developed +itself more or less independently. <i>Albertus</i> alone of his poems +has much of the extravagant and grotesque character which +distinguished early romantic literature. The <i>Comédie de la +mort</i>, the <i>Poésies diverses</i>, and still more the <i>Émaux et camées</i>, +display a distinctly classical tendency—classical, that is to say, +not in the party and perverted sense, but in its true acceptation. +The tendency to the fantastic and horrible may be taken as best +shown by Petrus Borel (1809-1859), a writer of singular power +almost entirely wasted. Gerard Labrunie or de Nerval (1808-1855) +adopted a manner also fantastic but more idealistic than +Borel’s, and distinguished himself by his Oriental travels and +studies, and by his attention to popular ballads and traditions, +while his style has an exquisite but unaffected strangeness +hardly inferior to Gautier’s. This peculiar and somewhat +quintessenced style is also remarkable in the <i>Gaspard de la nuit</i> +of Louis Bertrand (1807-1841), a work of rhythmical prose +almost unique in its character. One famous sonnet preserves +the name of Félix Arvers (1806-1850). The two Deschamps +were chiefly remarkable as translators. The next generation +produced three remarkable poets, to whom may perhaps be +added a fourth. Théodore de Banville (1823-1891), adopting +the principles of Gautier, and combining with them a considerable +satiric faculty, composed a large amount of verse, faultless in +form, delicate and exquisite in shades and colours, but so entirely +neutral in moral and political tone that it has found fewer +admirers than it deserved. Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle +(1818-1894), carrying out the principle of ransacking foreign +literature for subjects, went to Celtic, classical or even Oriental +sources for his inspiration, and despite a science in verse not much +inferior to Banville’s, and a far wider range and choice of +subject, diffused an air of erudition, not to say pedantry, over +his work which disgusted some readers, and a pessimism which +displeased others, but has left poetry only inferior to that of +the greatest of his countrymen. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), +by his choice of unpopular subjects and the terrible truth of his +analysis, revolted not a few of those who, in the words of an +English critic, cannot take pleasure in the representation if they +do not take pleasure in the thing represented, and who thus +miss his extraordinary command of the poetical appeal in +sound, in imagery and in suggestion generally. Thus, by a +strange coincidence, each of the three representatives of the +second Romantic generation was for a time disappointed of +his due fame. A fourth poet of this time, Joséphin Soulary +(1815-1891), produced sonnets of rare beauty and excellence. +A fifth, Louis Bouilhet (1822-1869), an intimate friend of Flaubert, +pushed even farther the fancy for strange subjects, but +showed powers in <i>Melænis</i> and other things. In 1866 a collection +of poems, entitled after an old French fashion <i>Le Parnasse +contemporain</i>, appeared. It included contributions by many +of the poets just mentioned, but the mass of the contributors +were hitherto unknown to fame. A similar collection appeared +in 1869, and was interrupted by the German war, but continued +after it, and a third in 1876.</p> + +<p>The first <i>Parnasse</i> had been projected by MM. Xavier de +Ricard (b. 1843) and Catulle Mendès (1841-1909) as a sort of manifesto +of a school of young poets: but its contents were largely +coloured by the inclusion among them of work by representatives +of older generations—Gautier, Laprade, Leconte de Lisle, +Banville, Baudelaire and others. The continuation, however, +of the title in the later issues, rather than anything else, led to +the formation and promulgation of the idea of a “Parnassien” +or an “Impassible” school which was supposed to adopt as its +watchword the motto of “Art for Art’s sake,” to pay especial +attention to form, and also to aim at a certain objectivity. As +a matter of fact the greater poets and the greater poems of the +Parnasse admit of no such restrictive labelling, which can only +be regarded as mischievous, though (or very mainly because) +it has been continued. Another school, arising mainly in the +later ’eighties and calling itself that of “Symbolism,” has been +supposed to indicate a reaction against Parnassianism and even +against the main or Hugonic Romantic tradition generally; +with a throwing back to Lamartine and perhaps Chénier. This +idea of successive schools (“Decadents,” “Naturists,” “Simplists,” +&c.) has even been reduced to such an <i>absurdum</i> as +the statement that “France sees a new school of poetry every +fifteen years.” Those who have studied literature sufficiently +widely, and from a sufficient elevation, know that these systematisings +are always more or less delusive. Parnassianism, +symbolism and the other things are merely phases of the +Romantic movement itself—as may be proved to demonstration +by the simple process of taking, say, Hugo and Verlaine on the +one hand, Delille or Escouchard Lebrun on the other, and comparing +the two first mentioned with each other and with the +older poet. The differences in the first case will be found to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>147</span> +differences at most of individuality: in the other of kind. We +shall not, therefore, further refer to these dubious classifications: +but specify briefly the most remarkable poets whom they concern, +and all the older of whom, it may be observed, were represented +in the <i>Parnasse</i> itself. Of these the most remarkable were Sully +Prudhomme (1839-1907), François Coppée (1842-1908) and Paul +Verlaine (1844-1896). The first (<i>Stances et poèmes</i>, 1865, <i>Vaines +Tendresses</i>, 1875, <i>Bonheur</i>, 1888, &c.) is a philosophical and +rather pessimistic poet who has very strongly rallied the suffrages +of the rather large present public who care for the embodiment +of these tendencies in verse; the second (<i>La Grève des forgerons</i>, +1869, <i>Les Humbles</i>, 1872, <i>Contes et vers</i>, 1881-1887, &c.) a +dealer with more generally popular subjects in a more sentimental +manner; and the third (<i>Sagesse</i>, 1881, <i>Parallèlement</i>, 1889, +<i>Poèmes saturniens</i>, including early work, 1867-1890), by far the +most original and remarkable poet of the three, starting with +Baudelaire and pushing farther the fancy for forbidden subjects, +but treating both these and others with wonderful command of +sound and image-suggestion. Verlaine in fact (he was actually +well acquainted with English) endeavoured, and to a small +extent succeeded in the endeavour, to communicate to French +the vague suggestion of visual and audible appeal which has +characterized English poetry from Blake through Coleridge. +Others of the original Parnassiens who deserve mention are +Albert Glatigny (1839-1873), a Bohemian poet of great talent +who died young; Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), afterwards +chief of the Symbolists, also a true poet in his way, but somewhat +barren, and the victim of pose and trick; José Maria de Heredia +(1842-1905), a very exquisite practitioner of the sonnet but with +perhaps more art than matter in him; Henri Cazalis (1840-1909), +who long afterwards, under his name of Jean Lahor, appeared +as a Symbolist pessimist; A. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, another +eccentric but with a spark of genius; Emmanuel des Essarts; +Auguste de Châtillon (1810-1882); Léon Dierx (b. 1838) who, +after producing even less than Mallarmé, succeeded him as +Symbolist chief; Jean Aicard (b. 1848), a southern bard of merit; +and lastly Catulle Mendès himself, who has been a brilliant +writer in verse and prose ever since, and whose <i>Mouvement +poétique français de 1867 à 1900</i> (1903), an official report largely +amplified so that it is in fact a history and dictionary of French +poetry during the century, forms an almost unique work of +reference on the subject. Among the later recruits the most +specially noticeable was Armand Silvestre (1837-1901), whose +verse (<i>La Chanson des heures</i>, 1878, <i>Ailes d’or</i>, 1880, <i>La Chanson +des étoiles</i>, 1885), of an ethereal beauty, was contrasted with +prose admirably written and sometimes most amusing, but +“Pantagruelist,” and more, in manners and morals. This +declension from poetry to prose fiction was also noticeable in +Guy de Maupassant, André Theuriet, Anatole France and even +Alphonse Daudet.</p> + +<p>Yet another flight of poets may be grouped as those specially +representing the last quarter of the century and (whether Parnassian, +Symbolist or what not) the latest development of French +poetry. Verlaine and Mallarmé already mentioned were in a +manner the leaders of these. Perhaps something of the influence +of Whitman may be detected in the irregular verses of Gustave +Kahn (b. 1859), Francis Viélé Griffin, actually an American by +birth (b. 1864), Stuart Merrill, of like origin, and Paul Fort +(b. 1872). But the whole tendency of the period has been to +relax the stringency of French prosody. Albert Samain (1859-1900), +a musical versifier enough; Jean Moréas (1856-1910) who +began with a volume called <i>Les Syrtes</i> in 1884; Laurent Tailhade +(b. 1854) and others are more or less Symbolist, and contributed +to the Symbolist periodical (one of many such since the beginning +of the Romantic movement which would almost require an +article to themselves), the <i>Mercure de France</i>. An older man +than many of these, M. Jean Richepin (b. 1849), made for +a time considerable noise with poetical work of a colour older +even than his age, and harking back somewhat to the Jeune-France +and “Bousingot” type of early Romanticism—<i>La +Chanson des gueux</i>, <i>Les Blasphèmes</i>, &c. Other writers of note +are M. Paul Déroulède (b. 1846), a violently nationalist poet; +M. Maurice Bouchor (b. 1864), who started his serious and +respectable work with <i>Les Symboles</i> in 1888; while M. Henri de +Regnier, born in the same year, has received very high praise +for work from <i>Lendemains</i> in 1886 and other volumes up to +<i>Les Jeux rustiques et divins</i> (1897) and <i>Les Médailles d’argile</i> +(1900). The truth, however, perhaps is that this extraordinary +abundance of verse (for we have not mentioned a quarter of the +names which present themselves, or a twentieth part of those +who figure in M. Mendès’s catalogue for the last half-century) +reminds the literary historian somewhat too much of similar +phenomena in other times. There is undoubtedly a great diffusion +of poetical dexterity, and not perhaps a small one of poetical +spirit, but it requires the settling, clarifying and distinguishing +effects of time to separate the poet from the minor poet. Still +more perhaps must we look to time to decide whether the <i>vers +libre</i> as it is called—that is to say, the verse freed from the minute +traditions of the elder prosody, admitting hiatus, neglecting to +a greater or less extent <i>caesura</i>, and sometimes relying upon mere +rhythm to the neglect of strict metre altogether—can hold its +ground. It has as yet been practised by no poet at all approaching +the first class, except Verlaine, and not by him in its extremer +forms. And the whole history of prosody and poetry teaches us +that though similar changes often come in as it were unperceived, +they scarcely ever take root in the language unless a great poet +adopts them. Or rather it should perhaps be said that when +they are going to take root in the language a great poet always +does adopt them before very long.</p> + +<p><i>Prose Fiction since 1830.</i>—Even more remarkable, because +more absolutely novel, was the outburst of prose fiction which +followed 1830. Madame de Lafayette, Le Sage, Marivaux, +Voltaire, the Abbé Prévost, Diderot, J. J. Rousseau, Bernardin +de Saint-Pierre and Fiévée had all of them produced work +excellent in its way, and comprising in a more or less rudimentary +condition most varieties of the novel. But none of them had, +in the French phrase, made a school, and at no time had prose +fiction been composed in any considerable quantities. The immense +influence which Walter Scott exercised was perhaps the +direct cause of the attention paid to prose fiction; the facility, +too, with which all the fancies, tastes and beliefs of the +time could be embodied in such work may have had considerable +importance. But it is difficult on any theory of cause +and effect to account for the appearance in less than ten years of +such a group of novelists as Hugo, Gautier, Dumas, Mérimée, +Balzac, George Sand, Jules Sandeau and Charles de Bernard, +names to which might be added others scarcely inferior. There is +hardly anything else resembling it in literature, except the great +cluster of English dramatists in the beginning of the 17th century, +and of English poets at the beginning of the 19th; and it is +remarkable that the excellence of the first group was maintained +by a fresh generation—Murger, About, Feuillet, Flaubert, +Erckmann-Chatrian, Droz, Daudet, Cherbuliez and Gaboriau, +forming a company of <i>diadochi</i> not far inferior to their predecessors, +and being themselves not unworthily succeeded almost +up to the present day. The romance-writing of France during +the period has taken two different directions—the first that of +the novel of incident, the second that of analysis and character. +The first, now mainly deserted, was that which, as was natural +when Scott was the model, was formerly most trodden; the +second required the genius of George Sand and of Balzac and the +more problematical talent of Beyle to attract students to it. +The novels of Victor Hugo are novels of incident, with a strong +infusion of purpose, and considerable but rather ideal character +drawing. They are in fact lengthy prose <i>drames</i> rather than +romances proper, and they have found no imitators. They +display, however, the powers of the master at their fullest. +<span class="sidenote">Dumas.</span> +On the other hand, Alexandre Dumas originally composed +his novels in close imitation of Scott, and they +are much less dramatic than narrative in character, so that they +lend themselves to almost indefinite continuation, and there is +often no particular reason why they should terminate even at +the end of the score or so of volumes to which they sometimes +actually extend. Of this purely narrative kind, which hardly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>148</span> +even attempts anything but the boldest character drawing, +the best of them, such as <i>Les Trois Mousquetaires</i>, <i>Vingt ans +après</i>, <i>La Reine Margot</i>, are probably the best specimens extant. +Dumas possesses, almost alone among novelists, the secret of +writing interminable dialogue without being tedious, and of +telling the story by it. Of something the same kind, but of a far +lower stamp, are the novels of Eugène Sue (1804-1857). Dumas +and Sue were accompanied and followed by a vast crowd of companions, +independent or imitative. Alfred de Vigny had already +attempted the historical novel in <i>Cinq-Mars</i>. Henri de La Touche +(1785-1851) (<i>Fragoletta</i>), an excellent critic who formed George +Sand, but a mediocre novelist, may be mentioned: and perhaps +also Roger de Beauvoir, whose real name was Eugène Auguste +Roger de Bully (1806-1866) (<i>Le Chronique de Saint Georges</i>), +and Frédéric Soulié (<i>Les Mémoires du diable</i>) (1800-1847). +Paul Féval (<i>La Fée des grèves</i>) (1817-1877) and Amédée Achard +(<i>Belle-Rose</i>) (1814-1875) are of the same school, and some of the +attempts of Jules Janin (1804-1874), more celebrated as a critic, +may also be connected with it. By degrees, however, the taste +for the novel of incident, at least of an historical kind, died out +till it was revived in another form, and with an admixture of +domestic interest, by MM. Erckmann-Chatrian. The last and +one of the most splendid instances of the old style was <i>Le Capitaine +Fracasse</i>, which Théophile Gautier began early and finished +late as a kind of <i>tour de force</i>. The last-named writer in his earlier +days had modified the incident novel in many short tales, a kind +of writing for which French has always been famous, and in +which Gautier’s sketches are masterpieces. His only other long +novel, <i>Mademoiselle de Maupin</i>, belongs rather to the class of +analysis. With Gautier, as a writer whose literary characteristics +even excel his purely tale-telling powers, may be classed Prosper +Mérimée (1803-1870), one of the most exquisite 19th-century +masters of the language. Already, however, in 1830 the tide +was setting strongly in favour of novels of contemporary life +and manners. These were of course susceptible of extremely +various treatment. For many years Paul de Kock (1793-1871), +a writer who did not trouble himself about Classics or Romantics +or any such matter, continued the tradition of Marivaux, +Crébillon <i>fils</i>, and Pigault Lebrun (1753-1835) in a series of not +very moral or polished but lively and amusing sketches of life, +principally of the bourgeois type. Later Charles de Bernard +(1804-1850) (<i>Gerfaut</i>) with infinitely greater wit, elegance, +propriety and literary skill, did the same thing for the higher +classes of French society. But the two great masters of the +novel of character and manners as opposed to that of history +and incident are Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) and Aurore +Dudevant, commonly called George Sand (1804-1876). Their +influence affected the entire body of novelists who succeeded +them, with very few exceptions. At the head of these exceptions +may be placed Jules Sandeau (1811-1883), who, after writing +a certain number of novels in a less individual style, at last made +for himself a special subject in a certain kind of domestic novel, +where the passions set in motion are less boisterous than those +usually preferred by the French novelist, and reliance is mainly +placed on minute character drawing and shades of colour sober +in hue but very carefully adjusted (<i>Catherine</i>, <i>Mademoiselle de +Penarvan</i>, <i>Mademoiselle de la Seiglière</i>). In the same class of +the more quiet and purely domestic novelists may be placed +X. B. Saintine (1798-1865) (<i>Picciola</i>), Madame C. Reybaud +(1802-1871) (<i>Clémentine</i>, <i>Le Cadet de Colobrières</i>), J. T. de Saint-Germain +(<i>Pour en épingle</i>, <i>La Feuille de coudrier</i>), Madame Craven +(1808-1891) (<i>Récit d’une sœur</i>, <i>Fleurange</i>). Henri Beyle (1798-1865), +who wrote under the <i>nom de plume</i> of Stendhal and belongs +to an older generation than most of these, also stands by himself. +His chief book in the line of fiction is <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i>, an +exceedingly powerful novel of the analytical kind, and he also +composed a considerable number of critical and miscellaneous +works. Of little influence at first (though he had great power +over Mérimée) and never master of a perfect style, he has exercised +ever increasing authority as a master of pessimist analysis. +Indeed much of his work was never published till towards the +close of the century. Last among the independents must be +mentioned Henry Murger (1822-1861), the painter of what is +called Bohemian life, that is to say, the struggles, difficulties and +amusements of students, youthful artists, and men of letters. +In this peculiar style, which may perhaps be regarded as an +irregular descendant of the picaroon romance, Murger has no +rival; and he is also, though on no extensive scale, a poet of great +pathos. But with these exceptions, the influences of the two +writers we have mentioned, sometimes combined, more often +separate, may be traced throughout the whole of later novel +literature. George Sand began with books strongly tinged with +the spirit of revolt against moral and social arrangements, +and she sometimes diverged into very curious paths of pseudo-philosophy, +such as was popular in the second quarter of the +century. At times, too, as in <i>Lucrezia Floriani</i> and some other +works, she did not hesitate to draw largely on her own personal +adventures and experiences. But latterly she devoted herself +rather to sketches of country life and manners, and to novels +involving bold if not very careful sketches of character and more +or less dramatic situations. She was one of the most fertile +of novelists, continuing to the end of her long life to pour forth +fiction at the rate of many volumes a year. Of her different +styles may be mentioned as fairly characteristic, <i>Lélia</i>, <i>Lucrezia</i> +<i>Floriani</i>, <i>Consuelo</i>, <i>La Mare au diable</i>, <i>La Petite Fadette</i>, <i>François +le champi</i>, <i>Mademoiselle de la Quintinie</i>. Considering the shorter +<span class="sidenote">Balzac the younger.</span> +length of his life the productiveness of Balzac was +almost more astonishing, especially if we consider that +some of his early work was never reprinted, and that +he left great stores of fragments and unfinished sketches. He is, +moreover, the most remarkable example in literature of untiring +work and determination to achieve success despite the greatest +discouragements. His early work was worse than unsuccessful, +it was positively bad. After more than a score of unsuccessful +attempts, <i>Les Chouans</i> at last made its mark, and for twenty +years from that time the astonishing productions composing the +so-called <i>Comédie humaine</i> were poured forth successively. +The sub-titles which Balzac imposed upon the different batches, +<i>Scènes de la vie parisienne</i>, <i>de la vie de province</i>, <i>de la vie +intime</i>, &c., show, like the general title, a deliberate intention +on the author’s part to cover the whole ground of human, at +least of French life. Such an attempt could not succeed wholly; +yet the amount of success attained is astonishing. Balzac has, +however, with some justice been accused of creating the world +which he described, and his personages, wonderful as is the +accuracy and force with which many of the characteristics of +humanity are exemplified in them, are somehow not altogether +human. Since these two great novelists, many others have +arisen, partly to tread in their steps, partly to strike out independent +paths. Octave Feuillet (1821-1890), beginning his +career by apprenticeship to Alexandre Dumas and the historical +novel, soon found his way in a very different style of composition, +the <i>roman intime</i> of fashionable life, in which, notwithstanding +some grave defects, he attained much popularity and showed +remarkable skill in keeping abreast of his time. The so-called +realist side of Balzac was developed (but, as he himself acknowledged, +with a double dose of intermixed if somewhat transformed +Romanticism) by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), who +showed culture, scholarship and a literary power over the language +inferior to that of no writer of the century. No novelist of his +generation has attained a higher literary rank than Flaubert. +<i>Madame Bovary</i> and <i>L’Éducation sentimentale</i> are studies of contemporary +life; in <i>Salammbô</i> and <i>La Tentation de Saint Antoine</i> +erudition and antiquarian knowledge furnish the subjects for +the display of the highest literary skill. Of about the same date +Edmond About (1828-1885), before he abandoned novel-writing, +devoted himself chiefly to sketches of abundant but not always +refined wit (<i>L’Homme à l’oreille cassée</i>, <i>Le Nez d’un notaire</i>), +and sometimes to foreign scenes (<i>Tolla</i>, <i>Le Roi des montagnes</i>). +Champfleury (Henri Husson, 1829-1889), a prolific critic, +deserves notice for stories of the extravaganza kind. During the +whole of the Second Empire one of the most popular writers was +Ernest Feydeau (1821-1873), a writer of great ability, but morbid +and affected in the choice and treatment of his subjects (<i>Fanny</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>149</span> +<i>Sylvie</i>, <i>Catherine d’Overmeire</i>). Émile Gaboriau (1833-1873), +taking up that side of Balzac’s talent which devoted itself to +inextricable mysteries, criminal trials, and the like, produced +<i>M. Le Coq</i>, <i>Le Crime d’Orcival</i>, <i>La Dégringolade</i>, &c.; and +Adolphe Belot (b. 1829) for a time endeavoured to out-Feydeau +Feydeau in <i>La Femme de feu</i> and other works. Eugène +Fromentin (1820-1876), best known as a painter, wrote a novel, +<i>Dominique</i>, which was highly appreciated by good judges.</p> + +<p>During the last decade of the Second Empire there arose, +continuing for varying lengths of time till nearly the end of the +century, another remarkable group of novelists, most of whom +are dealt with under separate headings, but who must receive +combined treatment here; with the warning that even more +danger than in the case of the poets is incurred by classing +them in “schools.” Undoubtedly, however, the “Naturalist” +tendency, starting from Balzac and continued through Flaubert, +but taking quite a new direction under some of those to be +mentioned, is in a manner dominant. Flaubert himself and +Feuillet (an exact observer of manners but an anti-Naturalist) +have already been mentioned. Victor Cherbuliez (1829-1899), +a constant writer in the <i>Revue des deux mondes</i> on politics and +other subjects, also accomplished a long series of novels from +<i>Le Comte Kostia</i> (1863) onwards, of which the most remarkable +are that just named, <i>Le Roman d’une honnête femme</i> (1866), +and <i>Meta Holdenis</i> (1873). With something of Balzac and +more of Feuillet, Cherbuliez mixed with his observation of +society a dose of sentimental and popular romance which offended +the younger critics of his day, but he had solid merits. Gustave +Droz (b. 1832) devoted himself chiefly to short stories sufficiently +“free” in subject (<i>Monsieur, madame et bébé</i>, <i>Entre nous</i>, &c.) +but full of fancy, excellently written, and of a delicate wit in one +sense if not in all. André Theuriet (1833-1907) began with poetry +but diverged to novels, in which the scenery of France and +especially of its great forests is used with much skill; <i>Le Fils +Maugars</i> (1879) may be mentioned out of many as a specimen. +Léon Cladel (1835-1892), whose most remarkable work was +<i>Les Va-nu-pieds</i> (1874), had, as this title of itself shows, Naturalist +leanings; but with a quaint Romantic tendency in prose and +verse.</p> + +<p>The Naturalists proper chiefly developed or seemed to develop +one side of Balzac, but almost entirely abandoned his Romantic +element. They aimed first at exact and almost photographic +delineation of the accidents of modern life, and secondly at +still more uncompromising non-suppression of the essential +features and functions of that life which are usually suppressed. +This school may be represented in chief by four novelists (really +<i>three</i>, as two of them were brothers who wrote together till the +rather early death of one of them), Émile Zola (1840-1903), +Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897), and Edmond (1822-1897) and +Jules (1830-1870) de Goncourt. The first, of Italian extraction +and Marseillais birth, began by work of undecided kinds and +was always a critic as well as a novelist. Of this first stage +<i>Contes à Ninon</i> (1864) and <i>Thérèse Raquin</i> (1867) deserve to be +specified. But after 1870 Zola entered upon a huge scheme +(suggested no doubt by the <i>Comédie humaine</i>) of tracing the +fortunes in every branch, legitimate and illegitimate, and in +every rank of society of a family, <i>Les Rougon-Macquart</i>, and +carried it out in a full score of novels during more than as many +years. He followed this with a shorter series on places, <i>Paris</i>, +<i>Rome</i>, <i>Lourdes</i>, and lastly by another of strangely apocalyptic +tone, <i>Fécondité</i>, <i>Travail</i>, <i>Vérité</i>, the last a story of the Dreyfus +case, retrospective and, as it proved, prophetic. The extreme +repulsiveness of much of his work, and the overdone detail of +almost the whole of it, caused great prejudice against him, and +will probably always prevent his being ranked among the greatest +novelists; but his power is indubitable, and in passages, if not +in whole books, does itself justice.</p> + +<p>MM. de Goncourt, besides their work in Naturalist (they +would have preferred to call it “Impressionist”) fiction, devoted +themselves especially to study and collection in the fine arts, +and produced many volumes on the historical side of these, +volumes distinguished by accurate and careful research. This +quality they carried, and the elder of them after his brother’s +death continued to carry, into novel-writing (<i>Renée Mauperin</i>, +<i>Germinie Lacerteux</i>, <i>Chérie</i>, &c.) with the addition of an extraordinary +care for peculiar and, as they called it, “personal” +diction. On the other hand, Alphonse Daudet (who with the +other three, Flaubert to some extent, and the Russian novelist +Turgenieff, formed a sort of <i>cénacle</i> or literary club) mixed with +some Naturalism a far greater amount of fancy and wit than his +companions allowed themselves or could perhaps attain; and +in the <i>Tartarin</i> series (dealing with the extravagances of his +fellow-Provençaux) added not a little to the gaiety of Europe. +His other novels (<i>Fromont jeune et Risler aîné</i>, <i>Jack</i>, <i>Le Nabab</i>, +&c.), also very popular, have been variously judged, there +being something strangely like plagiarism in some of them, and +in others, in fact in most, an excessive use of that privilege of +the novelist which consists in introducing real persons under +more or less disguise. It should be observed in speaking of this +group that the Goncourts, or rather the survivor of them, left an +elaborate <i>Journal</i> disfigured by spite and bad taste, but of much +importance for the appreciation of the personal side of French +literature during the last half of the century.</p> + +<p>In 1880 Zola, who had by this time formed a regular school of +disciples, issued with certain of them a collection of short stories, +<i>Les Soirées de Médan</i>, which contains one of his own best things, +<i>L’Attaque du moulin</i>, and also the capital story, <i>Boule de suif</i>, +by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), who in the same year +published poems, <i>Des vers</i>, of very remarkable if not strictly +poetical quality. Maupassant developed during his short +literary career perhaps the greatest powers shown by any French +novelist since Flaubert (his sponsor in both senses) in a series +of longer novels (<i>Une Vie</i>, <i>Bel Ami</i>, <i>Pierre et Jean</i>, <i>Fort comme +la mort</i>) and shorter stories (<i>Monsieur Parent</i>, <i>Les Sœurs +Rondoli</i>, <i>Le Horla</i>), but they were distorted by the Naturalist +pessimism and grime, and perhaps also by the brain-disease +of which their author died. M. J. K. Huysmans (b. 1848), also +a contributor to <i>Les Soirées de Médan</i>, who had begun a little +earlier with <i>Marthe</i> (1876) and other books, gave his most +characteristic work in 1884 with <i>Au rebours</i> and in 1891 with +<i>Là-bas</i>, stories of exaggerated and “satanic” pose, decorated +with perhaps the extremest achievements of the school in mere +ugliness and nastiness. Afterwards, by an obvious reaction, +he returned to Catholicism. Of about the same date as these +two are two other novelists of note, Julien Viaud (“Pierre Loti,” +b. 1850), a naval officer who embodied his experiences of foreign +service with a faint dose of story and character interest, and a +far larger one of elaborate description, in a series of books +(<i>Aziyadé</i>, <i>Le Mariage de Loti</i>, <i>Madame Chrysanthème</i>, &c.), and +M. Paul Bourget (b. 1852), an important critic as well as novelist +who deflected the Naturalist current into a “psychological” +channel, connecting itself higher with Stendhal, and composed +in its books very popular in their way—<i>Cruelle Énigme</i> (1885), +<i>Le Disciple</i>, <i>Terre promise</i>, <i>Cosmopolis</i>. As a contrast or complement +to Bourget’s “psychological” novel may be taken the +“ethical” novel of Edouard Rod (1857-1909)—<i>La Vie privée +de Michel Tessier</i> (1893), <i>Le Sens de la vie</i>, <i>Les Trois Cœurs</i>. +Contemporary with these as a novelist though a much older man, +and occupied at different times of his life with verse and with +criticism, came Anatole France (b. 1844), who in <i>Le Crime de +Silvestre Bonnard</i>, <i>La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque</i>, <i>Le Lys +rouge</i>, and others, has made a kind of novel as different from +the ordinary styles as Pierre Loti’s, but of far higher appeal +in its wit, its subtle fancy, and its perfect French. Ferdinand +Fabre (1830-1898) and René Bazin (b. 1853) represent the union, +not too common in the French novel, of orthodoxy in morals and +religion with literary ability. Further must be mentioned Paul +Hervieu (b. 1857), a dramatist rather than a novelist; the +brothers Margueritte (Paul, b. 1860, Victor, b. 1866), especially +strong in short stories and passages; another pair of brothers +of Belgian origin writing under the name of “J. H. Rosny”—Zolaists +partly converted not to religion but to science and a +sort of non-Christian virtue; the ingenious and amusing, if not +exactly moral, brilliancy of Marcel Prévost (b. 1862); the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>150</span> +contorted but rather attractive style and the perverse sentiment +of Maurice Barrès (b. 1862); and, above all, the audacious and +inimitable dialogue pieces of “Gyp” (Madame de Martel, b. +1850), worthy of the best times of French literature for gaiety, +satire, acuteness and style, and perhaps likely, with the work +of Maupassant, Pierre Loti and Anatole France, to represent the +capital achievement of their particular generation to posterity.</p> + +<p><i>Periodical Literature since 1830.</i> <i>Criticism.</i>—One of the causes +which led to this extensive composition of novels was the great +spread of periodical literature in France, and the custom of +including in almost all periodicals, daily, weekly or monthly, +a <i>feuilleton</i> or instalment of fiction. Of the contributors of these +periodicals who were strictly journalists and almost political +journalists only, the most remarkable after Carrel were his +opponent in the fatal duel,—Émile de Girardin, Lucien A. +Prévost-Paradol (1829-1870), Jean Hippolyte Cartier, called +de Villemessant (1812-1879), and, above all, Louis Veuillot +(1815-1883), the most violent and unscrupulous but by no means +the least gifted of his class. The same spread of periodical +literature, together with the increasing interest in the literature +of the past, led also to a very great development of criticism. +Almost all French authors of any eminence during nearly the +last century have devoted themselves more or less to criticism +of literature, of the theatre, or of art. And sometimes, as in the +case of Janin and Gautier, the comparatively lucrative nature of +journalism, and the smaller demands which it made for labour and +intellectual concentration, have diverted to feuilleton-writing +abilities which might perhaps have been better employed. +At the same time it must be remembered that from this devotion +of men of the best talents to critical work has arisen an immense +elevation of the standard of such work. Before the romantic +movement in France Diderot in that country, Lessing and some +of his successors in Germany, Hazlitt, Coleridge and Lamb in +England, had been admirable critics and reviewers. But the +theory of criticism, though these men’s principles and practice +had set it aside, still remained more or less what it had been for +centuries. The critic was merely the administrator of certain +hard and fast rules. There were certain recognized kinds of +literary composition; every new book was bound to class itself +under one or other of these. There were certain recognized rules +for each class; and the goodness or badness of a book consisted +simply in its obedience or disobedience to these rules. Even the +kinds of admissible subjects and the modes of admissible treatment +were strictly noted and numbered. This was especially the +case in France and with regard to French <i>belles-lettres</i>, so that, as +we have seen, certain classes of composition had been reduced to +unimportant variations of a registered pattern. The Romantic +protest against this absurdity was specially loud and completely +victorious. It is said that a publisher advised the youthful +Lamartine to try “to be like somebody else” if he wished to +succeed. The Romantic standard of success was, on the contrary, +to be as individual as possible. Victor Hugo himself composed +a good deal of criticism, and in the preface to his <i>Orientales</i> he +states the critical principles of the new school clearly. The critic, +he says, has nothing to do with the subject chosen, the colours +employed, the materials used. Is the work, judged by itself and +with regard only to the ideal which the worker had in his mind, +good or bad? It will be seen that as a legitimate corollary of +this theorem the critic becomes even more of an interpreter than +of a judge. He can no longer satisfy himself or his readers by +comparing the work before him with some abstract and accepted +standard, and marking off its shortcomings. He has to reconstruct, +more or less conjecturally, the special ideal at which each +of his authors aimed, and to do this he has to study their idiosyncrasies +with the utmost care, and set them before his readers +in as full and attractive a fashion as he can manage. The first +writer who thoroughly grasped this necessity and successfully +<span class="sidenote">Sainte-Beuve.</span> +dealt with it was Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve +(1804-1869), who has indeed identified his name with +the method of criticism just described. Sainte-Beuve’s +first remarkable work (his poems and novels we may leave out +of consideration) was the sketch of 16th-century literature +already alluded to, which he contributed to the <i>Globe</i>. But it +was not till later that his style of criticism became fully developed +and accentuated. During the first decade of Louis Philippe’s +reign his critical papers, united under the title of <i>Critiques et +portraits littéraires</i>, show a gradual advance. During the next +ten years he was mainly occupied with his studies of the writers +of the Port Royal school. But it was during the last twenty +years of his life, when the famous <i>Causeries du lundi</i> appeared +weekly in the columns of the <i>Constitutionnel</i> and the <i>Moniteur</i>, +that his most remarkable productions came out. Sainte-Beuve’s +style of criticism (which is the key to so much of French literature +of the last half-century that it is necessary to dwell on it at some +length), excellent and valuable as it is, lent itself to two corruptions. +There is, in the first place, in making the careful investigations +into the character and circumstances of each writer which +it demands, a danger of paying too much attention to the man +and too little to his work, and of substituting for a critical study +a mere collection of personal anecdotes and traits, especially if +the author dealt with belongs to a foreign country or a past age. +The other danger is that of connecting the genius and character +of particular authors too much with their conditions and circumstances, +so as to regard them as merely so many products of the +age. These faults, and especially the latter, have been very +noticeable in many of Sainte-Beuve’s successors, particularly in, +perhaps, Hippolyte Taine, who, however, besides his work on +English literature, did much of importance on French, and has +been regarded as the first critic who did thorough honour to +Balzac in his own country. A large number of other critics +during the period deserve notice because, though acting more +or less on the newer system of criticism, they have manifested +considerable originality in its application. As far as merely +critical faculty goes, and still more in the power of giving literary +expression to criticism, Théophile Gautier yields to no one. +His <i>Les Grotesques</i>, an early work dealing with Villon, the earlier +“Théophile” de Viau, and other <i>enfants terribles</i> of French +literature, has served as a model to many subsequent writers, +such as Charles Monselet (1825-1888), and Charles Asselineau +(1820-1874), the affectionate historian, in his <i>Bibliographie +romantique</i> (1872-1874), of the less famous promoters of the +Romantic movement. On the other hand, Gautier’s picture +criticisms, and his short reviews of books, obituary notices, +and other things of the kind contributed to daily papers, are in +point of style among the finest of all such fugitive compositions. +Jules Janin (1804-1874), chiefly a theatrical critic, excelled in +light and easy journalism, but his work has neither weight of +substance nor careful elaboration of manner sufficient to give it +permanent value. This sort of light critical comment has become +almost a speciality of the French press, and among its numerous +practitioners the names of Armand de Pontmartin (1811-1890) +(an imitator and assailant of Sainte-Beuve), Arsène Houssaye, +Pierangelo Fiorentino (1806-1864), may be mentioned. Edmond +Scherer (1815-1889) and Paul de Saint-Victor (1827-1881) +represent different sides of Sainte-Beuve’s style in literary +criticism, Scherer combining with it a martinet and somewhat +prudish precision, while Saint-Victor, with great powers of +appreciation, is the most flowery and “prose-poetical” of French +critics. In theatrical censure Francisque Sarcey (1827-1899), +an acute but somewhat severe and limited judge, succeeded to +the good-natured sovereignty of Janin. The criticism of the +<i>Revue des deux mondes</i> has played a sufficiently important part +in French literature to deserve separate notice in passing. +Founded in 1829, the <i>Revue</i>, after some vicissitudes, soon attained, +under the direction of the Swiss Buloz, the character of being +one of the first of European critical periodicals. Its style of +criticism has, on the whole, inclined rather to the classical side—that +is, to classicism as modified by, and possible after, the +Romantic movement. Besides some of the authors already +named, its principal critical contributors were Gustave Planche +(1808-1857), an acute but somewhat truculent critic, Saint-René +Taillandier (1817-1879), and Émile Montégut (1825-1895), +a man of letters whom greater leisure would have made greater, +but who actually combined much and varied critical power with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>151</span> +an agreeable style. Lastly we must notice the important section +of professorial or university critics, whose critical work has taken +the form either of regular treatises or of courses of republished +lectures, books somewhat academic and rhetorical in character, +but often representing an amount of influence which has served +largely to stir up attention to literature. The most prominent +name among these is that of Abel Villemain (1790-1867), who +was one of the earliest critics of the literature of his own country +to obtain a hearing out of it. Désiré Nisard (1806-1888) was +perhaps more fortunate in his dealings with Latin than with +French, and in his <i>History</i> of the latter literature represents +too much the classical tradition, but he had dignity, erudition +and an excellent style. Alexandre Vinet (1797-1847), a Swiss +critic of considerable eminence, Saint-Marc-Girardin (1801-1873), +whose <i>Cours de littérature dramatique</i> is his chief work, and +Eugène Géruzez (1799-1865), the author not only of an extremely +useful and well-written handbook to French literature before the +Revolution, but also of other works dealing with separate portions +of the subject, must also be mentioned. One remarkable critic, +Ernest Hello (1818-1885), attracted during his life little attention +even in France, and hardly any out of it, his work being strongly +tinctured with the unpopular flavour and colour of uncompromising +“clericalism,” and his extremely bad health keeping +him out of the ordinary fraternities of literary society. It was, +however, as full of idiosyncrasy as of partisanship, and is exceedingly +interesting to those who regard criticism as mainly valuable +because it gives different aspects of the same thing.</p> + +<p>Perhaps in no branch of <i>belles-lettres</i> did the last quarter of the +century maintain the level at which predecessors had arrived +better than in criticism; though whether this fact is connected +with something of decadence in the creative branches, is a question +which may be better posed than resolved here. A remarkable +writer whose talent, approaching genius, was spoilt by eccentricity +and pose, and who belonged to a more modern generation, +Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly (1808-1889), poet, novelist and critic, +produced much of his last critical work, and corrected more, in +these later days. Not only did the critical work in various ways +of Renan, Taine, Scherer, Sarcey and others continue during +parts of it, but a new generation, hardly in this case inferior to +the old, appeared. The three chiefs of this were the already +mentioned Anatole France, Émile Faguet (b. 1847), and Ferdinand +Brunetière (1849-1906), to whom some would add Jules Lemaître +(b. 1853). The last, however, though a brilliant writer, was but +an “interim” critic, beginning with poetry and other matters, +and after a time turning to yet others, while, brilliant as he was, +his criticism was often ill-informed. So too Anatole France, +after compiling four volumes of <i>La Vie littéraire</i> in his own +inimitable style and with singular felicity of appreciation, also +turned away. The phenomenon in both cases may be associated, +though it must not be too intimately connected in the relation +of cause and effect, with the fact that both were champions +and practitioners of “impressionist criticism”—of the doctrine +(unquestionably sound if not exaggerated) that the first duty of +the critic is to reproduce the effect produced on his own mind +by the author. Brunetière and Faguet, on the other hand, are +partisans of the older academic style of criticism by kind and on +principle. Faguet, besides regular volumes on each of the four +great centuries of French literature, has produced much other +work—all of it somewhat “classical” in tendency and frequently +exhibiting something of a want of comprehension of the Romantic +side. Brunetière was still more prolific on the same side but with +still greater effort after system and “science.” In the books +definitely called <i>L’Évolution des genres</i>, in his <i>Manuel</i> of French +literature, and in a large number of other volumes of collected +essays he enforced with great learning and power of argument, +if with a somewhat narrow purview and with some prejudice +against writers whom he disliked, a new form of the old doctrine +that the “kind” not the individual author or book ought to be +the main subject of the critic’s attention. He did not escape +the consequential danger of taking authors and books not as +they are but as in relation to the kinds which they in fact constitute +and to his general views. But he was undoubtedly at +his death the first critic of France and a worthy successor of +her best.</p> + +<p>Of others older and younger must be mentioned Paul Stapfer +(b. 1840), professor of literature, and the author of divers excellent +works from <i>Shakespeare et l’antiquité</i> to volumes of the first value +on Montaigne and Rabelais; Paul Bourget and Edouard Rod, +already noticed; Augustin Filon (b. 1841), author of much good +work on English literature and an excellent book on Mérimée; +Alexandre Beljame (1843-1906), another eminent student of +English literature, in which subject J. A. Jusserand (b. 1855), +Legouis, K. A. J. Angellier (b. 1848), and others have recently +distinguished themselves; Gustave Larroumet, especially an +authority on Marivaux; Eugène Lintilhac (b. 1854); Georges +Pellissier; Gustave Lanson, author of a compact history of +French literature in French; Marcel Schwob, who had done +excellent work on Villon and other subjects before his early +death; René Doumic, a frequent writer in the <i>Revue des deux +mondes</i>, who collected four volumes of <i>Études sur la littérature +française</i> between 1895 and 1900; and the Vicomte Melchior de +Vogüé (b. 1848), whose interests have been more political-philosophical +than strictly literary, but who has done much to +familiarize the French public with that Russian literature to +which Mérimée had been the first to introduce them. But the +body of recent critical literature in France is perhaps larger +in actual proportion and of greater value when considered in +relation to other kinds of literature than has been the case at +any previous period.</p> + +<p><i>History since 1830.</i>—The remarkable development of historical +studies which we have noticed as taking place under the Restoration +was accelerated and intensified in the reigns of Charles X. +and Louis Philippe. Both the scope and the method of the +historian underwent a sensible alteration. For something like +150 years historians had been divided into two classes, those who +produced elegant literary works pleasant to read, and those who +produced works of laborious erudition, but not even intended for +general perusal. The Vertots and Voltaires were on one side, +the Mabillons and Tillemonts on another. Now, although the +duty of a French historian to produce works of literary merit +was not forgotten, it was recognized as part of that duty to +consult original documents and impart original observation. At +the same time, to the merely political events which had formerly +been recognized as forming the historian’s province were added +the social and literary phenomena which had long been more or +less neglected. Old chronicles and histories were re-read and +re-edited; innumerable monographs on special subjects and +periods were produced, and these latter were of immense service +to romance writers at the time of the popularity of the historical +novel. Not a few of the works, for instance, which were signed +by Alexandre Dumas consist mainly of extracts or condensations +from old chronicles, or modern monographs, ingeniously united +by dialogue and varnished with a little description. History, +however, had not to wait for this second-hand popularity, and +its cultivators had fully sufficient literary talent to maintain its +dignity. Sismondi, whom we have already noticed, continued +during this period his great <i>Histoire des Français</i>, and produced +his even better-known <i>Histoire des républiques italiennes au +moyen âge</i>. The brothers Thierry devoted themselves to early +French history, Amédée Thierry (1797-1873) producing a <i>Histoire +des Gaulois</i> and other works concerning the Roman period, and +Augustin Thierry (1795-1856) the well-known history of the +Norman Conquest, the equally attractive <i>Récits des temps +Mérovingiens</i> and other excellent works. Philippe de Ségur +(1780-1873) gave a history of the Russian campaign of Napoleon, +and some other works chiefly dealing with Russian history. +The voluminous <i>Histoire de France</i> of Henri Martin (1810-1883) +is perhaps the best and most impartial work dealing in detail +with the whole subject. A. G. P. Brugière, baron de Barante +(1782-1866), after beginning with literary criticism, turned to +history, and in his <i>Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne</i> produced a +work of capital importance. As was to be expected, many of the +most brilliant results of this devotion to historical subjects +consisted of works dealing with the French Revolution. No +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>152</span> +series of historical events has ever perhaps received treatment +at the same time from so many different points of view, and by +writers of such varied literary excellence, among whom it must, +however, be said that the purely royalist side is hardly at all +represented. One of the earliest of these histories is that of +François Mignet (1796-1884), a sober and judicious historian of +the older school, also well known for his <i>Histoire de Marie Stuart</i>. +About the same time was begun the brilliant if not extremely +trustworthy work of Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) on the Revolution, +which established the literary reputation of the future +president of the French republic, and was at a later period completed +by the <i>Histoire du consulat et de l’empire</i>. The downfall +of the July monarchy and the early years of the empire witnessed +the publication of several works of the first importance on this +subject. Barante contributed histories of the Convention and +the Directory, but the three books of greatest note were those +of Lamartine, Jules Michelet (1798-1874), and Louis Blanc +(1811-1882). Lamartine’s <i>Histoire des Girondins</i> is written +from the constitutional-republican point of view, and is sometimes +considered to have had much influence in producing the events +of 1848. It is, perhaps, rather the work of an orator and poet +than of an historian. The work of Michelet is of a more original +character. Besides his history of the Revolution, Michelet wrote +an extended history of France, and a very large number of smaller +works on historical, political and social subjects. His imaginative +powers are of the highest order, and his style stands alone in +French for its strangely broken and picturesque character, its +turbid abundance of striking images, and its somewhat sombre +magnificence, qualities which, as may easily be supposed, found +full occupation in a history of the Revolution. The work of +Louis Blanc was that of a sincere but ardent republican, and is +useful from this point of view, but possesses no extraordinary +literary merit. The principal contributions to the history of the +Revolution of the third quarter of the century were those of +Quinet, Lanfrey and Taine. Edgar Quinet (1803-1875), like +Louis Blanc a devotee of the republic and an exile for its sake, +brought to this one of his latest works a mind and pen long +trained to literary and historical studies; but <i>La Révolution</i> is +not considered his best work. P. Lanfrey devoted himself with +extraordinary patience and acuteness to the destruction of the +Napoleonic legend, and the setting of the character of Napoleon I. +in a new, authentic and very far from favourable light. And +Taine, after distinguishing himself, as we have mentioned, +in literary criticism (<i>Histoire de la littérature anglaise</i>), and attaining +less success in philosophy (<i>De l’intelligence</i>), turned in +<i>Les Origines de la France moderne</i> to an elaborate discussion of +the Revolution, its causes, character and consequences, which +excited some commotion among the more ardent devotees of the +principles of ’89. To return from this group, we must notice +J. F. Michaud (1767-1839), the historian of the crusades, +and François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874), who, like +his rival Thiers, devoted himself much to historical study. His +earliest works were literary and linguistic, but he soon turned +to political history, and for the last half-century of his long life +his contributions to historical literature were almost incessant +and of the most various character. The most important are +the histories <i>Des Origines du gouvernement représentatif</i>, <i>De la +révolution d’Angleterre</i>, <i>De la civilisation en France</i>, and latterly +a <i>Histoire de France</i>, which he was writing at the time of his +death. Among minor historians of the earlier century may +be mentioned Prosper Duvergier de Hauranne (1798-1881) +(<i>Gouvernement parlementaire en France</i>), J. J. Ampère (1800-1864) +(<i>Histoire romaine à Rome</i>), Auguste Arthur Beugnot (1797-1865) +(<i>Destruction du paganisme d’occident</i>), J. O. B. de Cléron, +comte d’Haussonville (<i>La Réunion de la Lorraine à la France</i>), +Achille Tendelle de Vaulabelle (1799-1870) (<i>Les Deux Restaurations</i>). +In the last quarter of the century, under the department +of history, the most remarkable names were still those of Taine +and Renan, the former being distinguished for thought and +matter, the latter for style. Indeed it may be here proper to +remark that Renan, in the kind of elaborated semi-poetic style +which has most characterized the prose of the 19th century in +all countries of Europe, takes pre-eminence among French +writers even in the estimation of critics who are not enamoured +of his substance and tone. But, under the influence of Taine to +some extent and of a general European tendency still more, +France during this period attained or recovered a considerable +place for what is called “scientific” history—the history which +while, in some cases, though not in all, not neglecting the development +of style attaches itself particularly to “the document,” +on the one hand, and to philosophical arrangement on the other. +The chief representative of the school was probably Albert Sorel +(1842-1906), whose various handlings of the Revolutionary period +(including an excursion into partly literary criticism in the shape +of an admirable monograph on Madame de Staël) have established +themselves once for all. In a wider sweep Ernest Lavisse (b. +1842), who has dealt mainly with the 18th century, may hold +a similar position. Of others, older and younger, the duc de +Broglie (1821-1901), who devoted himself also to the 18th century +and especially to its secret diplomacy; Gaston Boissier (b. 1823), +a classical scholar rather than an historian proper, and one of the +latest masters of the older French academic style; Thureau-Dangin +(b. 1837), a student of mid 19th-century history; Henri +Houssaye (b. 1848), one of the Napoleonic period; Gabriel +Hanotaux (b. 1853), an historian of Richelieu and other subjects, +and a practical politician, may be mentioned. A large accession +has also been made to the publication of older memoirs—that +important branch of French literature from almost the whole of +its existence since the invention of prose.</p> + +<p><i>Summary and Conclusion.</i>—We have in these last pages given +such an outline of the 19th-century literature of France as seemed +convenient for the completion of what has gone before. It has +been already remarked that the nearer approach is made to our +own time the less is it possible to give exhaustive accounts of +the individual cultivators of the different branches of literature. +It may be added, perhaps, that such exhaustiveness becomes, +as we advance, less and less necessary, as well as less and less +possible. The individual poet of to-day may and does produce +work that is in itself of greater literary value than that of the +individual trouvère. As a matter of literary history his contribution +is less remarkable because of the examples he has +before him and the circumstances which he has around him. +Yet we have endeavoured to draw such a sketch of French +literature from the <i>Chanson de Roland</i> onwards that no important +development and hardly any important partaker in such development +should be left out. A few lines may, perhaps, be now +profitably given to summing up the aspects of the whole, +remembering always that, as in no case is generalization easier +than in the case of the literary aspects and tendencies of periods +and nations, so in no case is it apt to be more delusive unless +corrected and supported by ample information of fact and detail.</p> + +<p>At the close of the 11th century and at the beginning of the +12th we find the vulgar tongue in France not merely in fully +organized use for literary purposes, but already employed in +most of the forms of poetical writing. An immense outburst of +epic and narrative verse has taken place, and lyrical poetry, +not limited as in the case of the epics to the north of France, but +extending from Roussillon to the Pas de Calais, completes this. +The 12th century adds to these earliest forms the important +development of the mystery, extends the subjects and varies +the manner of epic verse, and begins the compositions of literary +prose with the chronicles of St Denis and of Villehardouin, and +the prose romances of the Arthurian cycle. All this <span class="correction" title="amended from literaure">literature</span> +is so far connected purely with the knightly and priestly orders, +though it is largely composed and still more largely dealt in by +classes of men, trouvères and jongleurs, who are not necessarily +either knights or priests, and in the case of the jongleurs are +certainly neither. With a possible ancestry of Romance and +Teutonic <i>cantilenae</i>, Breton <i>lais</i>, and vernacular legends, the +new literature has a certain pattern and model in Latin and for +the most part ecclesiastical compositions. It has the sacred books +and the legends of the saints for examples of narrative, the +rhythm of the hymns for a guide to metre, and the ceremonies of +the church for a stimulant to dramatic performance. By degrees +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>153</span> +also, in this 12th century, forms of literature which busy themselves +with the unprivileged classes begin to be born. The +fabliau takes every phase of life for its subject; the folk-song +acquires elegance and does not lose raciness and truth. In the +next century, the 13th, medieval literature in France arrives at +its prime—a prime which lasts until the first quarter of the 14th. +The early epics lose something of their savage charms, the polished +literature of Provence quickly perishes. But in the provinces +which speak the more prevailing tongue nothing is wanting to +literary development. The language itself has shaken off all +its youthful incapacities, and, though not yet well adapted +for the requirements of modern life and study, is in every way +equal to the demands made upon it by its own time. The +dramatic germ contained in the fabliau and quickened by the +mystery produces the profane drama. Ambitious works of merit +in the most various kinds are published; <i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i> +stands side by side with the <i>Vie de Saint Louis</i>, the <i>Jeu de la +feuillie</i> with <i>Le Miracle de Théophile</i>, the <i>Roman de la rose</i> +with the <i>Roman du Renart</i>. The earliest notes of ballads and +rondeau are heard; endeavours are made with zeal, and not +always without understanding, to naturalize the wisdom of the +ancients in France, and in the graceful tongue that France +possesses. Romance in prose and verse, drama, history, songs, +satire, oratory and even erudition, are all represented and +represented worthily. Meanwhile all nations of western Europe +have come to France for their literary models and subjects, +and the greatest writers in English, German, Italian, content +themselves with adaptations of Chrétien de Troyes, of Benoit +de Sainte More, and of a hundred other known and unknown +trouvères and fabulists. But this age does not last long. The +language has been put to all the uses of which it is as yet capable; +those uses in their sameness begin to pall upon reader and hearer; +and the enormous evils of the civil and religious state reflect themselves +inevitably in literature. The old forms die out or are +prolonged only in half-lifeless travesties. The brilliant colouring +of Froissart, and the graceful science of ballade and rondeau +writers like Lescurel and Deschamps, alone maintain the literary +reputation of the time. Towards the end of the 14th century +the translators and political writers import many terms of art, +and strain the language to uses for which it is as yet unhandy, +though at the beginning of the next age Charles d’Orléans by +his natural grace and the virtue of the forms he used emerges +from the mass of writers. Throughout the 15th century the +process of enriching or at least increasing the vocabulary goes on, +but as yet no organizing hand appears to direct the process. +Villon stands alone in merit as in peculiarity. But in this time +dramatic literature and the literature of the floating popular +broadsheet acquire an immense extension—all or almost all the +vigour of spirit being concentrated in the rough farce and rougher +lampoon, while all the literary skill is engrossed by insipid +<i>rhétoriqueurs</i> and pedants. Then comes the grand upheaval +of the Renaissance and the Reformation. An immense influx +of science, of thought to make the science living, of new terms +to express the thought, takes place, and a band of literary +workers appear of power enough to master and get into shape +the turbid mass. Rabelais, Amyot, Calvin and Herberay +fashion French prose; Marot, Ronsard and Regnier refashion +French verse. The Pléiade introduces the drama as it is to be +and the language that is to help the drama to express itself. +Montaigne for the first time throws invention and originality +into some other form than verse or than prose fiction. But by the +end of the century the tide has receded. The work of arrangement +has been but half done, and there are no master spirits +left to complete it. At this period Malherbe and Balzac make +their appearance. Unable to deal with the whole problem, they +determine to deal with part of it, and to reject a portion of the +riches of which they feel themselves unfit to be stewards. Balzac +and his successors make of French prose an instrument faultless +and admirable in precision, unequalled for the work for which +it is fit, but unfit for certain portions of the work which it was +once able to perform. Malherbe, seconded by Boileau, makes +of French verse an instrument suited only for the purposes of the +drama of Euripides, or rather of Seneca, with or without its +chorus, and for a certain weakened echo of those choruses, +under the name of lyrics. No French verse of the first merit +other than dramatic is written for two whole centuries. The +drama soon comes to its acme, and during the succeeding time +usually maintains itself at a fairly high level until the death of +Voltaire. But prose lends itself to almost everything that is +required of it, and becomes constantly a more and more perfect +instrument. To the highest efforts of pathos and sublimity +its vocabulary and its arrangement likewise are still unsuited, +though the great preachers of the 17th century do their utmost +with it. But for clear exposition, smooth and agreeable narrative, +sententious and pointed brevity, witty repartee, it soon proves +itself to have no superior and scarcely an equal in Europe. +In these directions practitioners of the highest skill apply it +during the 17th century, while during the 18th its powers are +shown to the utmost of their variety by Voltaire, and receive +a new development at the hands of Rousseau. Yet, on the whole, +it loses during this century. It becomes more and more unfit +for any but trivial uses, and at last it is employed for those uses +only. Then occurs the Revolution, repeating the mighty stir +in men’s minds which the Renaissance had given, but at first +experiencing more difficulty in breaking up the ground and once +more rendering it fertile. The faulty and incomplete genius +of Chateaubriand and Madame de Staël gives the first evidence +of a new growth, and after many years the Romantic movement +completes the work. Whether the force of that movement is +now, after three-quarters of a century, spent or not, its results +remain. The poetical power of French has been once more +triumphantly proved, and its productiveness in all branches of +literature has been renewed, while in that of prose fiction there has +been almost created a new class of composition. In the process +of reform, however, not a little of the finish of French prose +style has been lost, and the language itself has been affected in +something the same way as it was affected by the less judicious +innovations of the Ronsardists. The pedantry of the Pléiade +led to the preposterous compounds of Du Bartas; the passion +of the Romantics for foreign tongues and for the <i>mot propre</i> +has loaded French with foreign terms on the one hand and with +<i>argot</i> on the other, while it is questionable whether the <i>vers libre</i> +is really suited to the French genius. There is, therefore, room +for new Malherbes and Balzacs, if the days for Balzacs and Malherbes +had not to all appearance passed. Should they be once +more forthcoming, they have the failure as well as the success +of their predecessors to guide them.</p> + +<p>Finally, we may sum up even this summary. For volume +and merit taken together the product of these eight centuries of +literature excels that of any European nation, though for individual +works of the supremest excellence they may perhaps be +asked in vain. No French writer is lifted by the suffrages of +other nations—the only criterion when sufficient time has elapsed—to +the level of Homer, of Shakespeare, or of Dante, who reign +alone. Of those of the authors of France who are indeed of the +thirty but attain not to the first three Rabelais and Molière +alone unite the general suffrage, and this fact roughly but surely +points to the real excellence of the literature which these men are +chosen to represent. It is great in all ways, but it is greatest on +the lighter side. The house of mirth is more suited to it than the +house of mourning. To the latter, indeed, the language of the +unknown marvel who told Roland’s death, of him who gave +utterance to Camilla’s wrath and despair, and of Victor Hugo, +who sings how the mountain wind makes mad the lover who cannot +forget, has amply made good its title of entrance. But for +one Frenchman who can write admirably in this strain there are +a hundred who can tell the most admirable story, formulate the +most pregnant reflection, point the acutest jest. There is thus +no really great epic in French, few great tragedies, and those +imperfect and in a faulty kind, little prose like Milton’s or like +Jeremy Taylor’s, little verse (though more than is generally +thought) like Shelley’s or like Spenser’s. But there are the most +delightful short tales, both in prose and in verse, that the world +has ever seen, the most polished jewelry of reflection that has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>154</span> +ever been wrought, songs of incomparable grace, comedies that +must make men laugh as long as they are laughing animals, and +above all such a body of narrative fiction, old and new, prose and +verse, as no other nation can show for art and for originality, for +grace of workmanship in him who fashions, and for certainty of +delight to him who reads.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—The most elaborate book on French literature +as a whole is that edited by Petit de Julleville, and composed of +chapters by different authors, <i>Histoire de la langue et de la littérature +françaises</i> (8 vols., Paris, 1896-1899). Unfortunately these chapters, +some of which are of the highest excellence, are of very unequal +value: they require connexions which are not supplied, and there +is throughout a neglect of minor authors. The bibliographical indications +are, however, most valuable. For a survey in a single +volume Lanson’s <i>Histoire</i> has superseded the older but admirable +manuals of Demogeot and Géruzez, which, however, are still worth +consulting. Brunetière’s <i>Manuel</i> (translated into English) is very +valuable with the cautions above given; and the large <i>Histoire de +la langue française depuis le seizième siècle</i> of Godefroy supplies copious +and well-chosen extracts with much biographical information. In +English there is an extensive <i>History</i> by H. van Laun (3 vols., 1874, +&c.); a <i>Short History</i> by Saintsbury (1882; 6th ed. continued to +the end of the century, 1901); and a <i>History</i> by Professor Dowden +(1895).</p> + +<p>To pass to special periods—the fountain-head of the literature +of the middle ages is the ponderous <i>Histoire littéraire</i> already referred +to, which, notwithstanding that it extended to 27 quarto +volumes in 1906, and had occupied, with interruptions, 150 years in +publication, had only reached the 14th century. Many of the +monographs which it contains are the best authorities on their +subjects, such as that of P. Paris on the early chansonniers, of V. +Leclerc on the fabliaux, and of Littré on the romans d’aventures. +For the history of literature before the 11th century, the period +mainly Latin, J. J. Ampère’s <i>Histoire littéraire de la France avant +Charlemagne, sous Charlemagne, et jusqu’au onzième siècle</i> is the chief +authority. Léon Gautier’s <i>Épopées françaises</i> (5 vols., 1878-1897) +contains almost everything known concerning the chansons de geste. +P. Paris’s <i>Romans de la table ronde</i> was long the main authority for +this subject, but very much has been written recently in France +and elsewhere. The most important of the French contributions, +especially those by Gaston Paris (whose <i>Histoire poétique de Charlemagne</i> +has been reprinted since his death), will be found in the +periodical <i>Romania</i>, which for more than thirty years has been the +chief receptacle of studies on old French literature. On the cycle +of Reynard the standard work is Rothe, <i>Les Romans de Renart</i>. +All parts of the lighter literature of old France are excellently +treated by Lenient, <i>Le Satire au moyen âge</i>. The early theatre has +been frequently treated by the brothers Parfaict (<i>Histoire du théâtre +français</i>), by Fabre (<i>Les Clercs de la Bazoche</i>), by Leroy (<i>Étude sur +les mystères</i>), by Aubertin (<i>Histoire de la langue et de la littérature +française au moyen âge</i>). This latter book will be found a useful +summary of the whole medieval period. The historical, dramatic +and oratorical sections are especially full. On a smaller scale but +of unsurpassed authority is G. Paris’s <i>Littérature du moyen âge</i> +translated into English.</p> + +<p>On the 16th century an excellent handbook is that by Darmesteter +and Hatzfeld; and the recent <i>Literature of the French Renaissance</i> +of A. Tilley (2 vols., 1904) is of high value. Sainte-Beuve’s <i>Tableau</i> +has been more than once referred to. Ebert (<i>Entwicklungsgeschichte +der französischen Tragödie vornehmlich im 16<span class="sp">ten</span> Jahrhundert</i>) is +the chief authority for dramatic matters. Essays and volumes on +periods and sub-periods since 1600 are innumerable; but those who +desire thorough acquaintance with the literature of these three +hundred years should read as widely as possible in all the critical +work of Sainte-Beuve, of Schérer, of Faguet and Brunetière—which +may be supplemented <i>ad libitum</i> from that of other critics mentioned +above. The series of volumes entitled <i>Les grands écrivains français</i>, +now pretty extensive, is generally very good, and Catulle Mendès’s +invaluable book on 19th-century poetry has been cited above. As +a companion to the study of poetry E. Crepet’s <i>Poètes français</i> +(4 vols., 1861), an anthology with introductions by Sainte-Beuve +and all the best critics of the day, cannot be surpassed, but to it +may be added the later <i>Anthologie des poètes français du XIX<span class="sp">e</span> +siècle</i> (1877-1879).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(G. Sa.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRENCH POLISH,<a name="ar2" id="ar2"></a></span> a liquid for polishing wood, made by +dissolving shellac in methylated spirit. There are four different +tints, brown, white, garnet and red, but the first named is that +most extensively used. All the tints are made in the same +manner, with the exception of the red, which is a mixture of the +brown polish and methylated spirit with either Saunders wood +or Bismarck brown, according to the strength of colour required. +Some woods, and especially mahogany, need to be stained before +they are polished. To stain mahogany mix some bichromate +of potash in hot water according to the depth of colour required. +After staining the wood the most approved method of filling the +grain is to rub in fine plaster of Paris (wet), wiping off before it +“sets.” After this is dry it should be oiled with linseed oil and +thoroughly wiped off. The wood is then ready for the polish, +which is put on with a rubber made of wadding covered with +linen rag and well wetted with polish. The polishing process has +to be repeated gradually, and after the work has hardened, +the surface is smoothed down with fine glass-paper, a few drops +of linseed oil being added until the surface is sufficiently smooth. +After a day or two the surface can be cleared by using a fresh +rubber with a double layer of linen, removing the top layer when +it is getting hard and finishing off with the bottom layer.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE.<a name="ar3" id="ar3"></a></span> Among the many revolutions +which from time to time have given a new direction to the +political development of nations the French Revolution stands +out as at once the most dramatic in its incidents and the most +momentous in its results. This exceptional character is, indeed, +implied in the name by which it is known; for France has experienced +many revolutions both before and since that of 1789, +but the name “French Revolution,” or simply “the Revolution,” +without qualification, is applied to this one alone. The causes +which led to it: the gradual decay of the institutions which +France had inherited from the feudal system, the decline of the +centralized monarchy, and the immediate financial necessities +that compelled the assembling of the long neglected states-general +in 1789, are dealt with in the article on <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">France</a></span>: <i>History</i>. +The successive constitutions, and the other legal changes which +resulted from it, are also discussed in their general relation to +the growth of the modern French polity in the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">France</a></span> +(<i>Law and Institutions</i>). The present article deals with the +progress of the Revolution itself from the convocation of the +states-general to the coup d’état of the 18th Brumaire which +placed Napoleon Bonaparte in power.</p> + +<p>The elections to the states-general of 1789 were held in unfavourable +circumstances. The failure of the harvest of 1788 +and a severe winter had caused widespread distress. +The government was weak and despised, and its agents +<span class="sidenote">Opening of the States-General.</span> +were afraid or unwilling to quell outbreaks of disorder. +At the same time the longing for radical reform and +the belief that it would be easy were almost universal. The +<i>cahiers</i> or written instructions given to the deputies covered +well-nigh every subject of political, social or economic interest, +and demanded an amazing number of changes. Amid this commotion +the king and his ministers remained passive. They did +not even determine the question whether the estates should act +as separate bodies or deliberate collectively. On the 5th of May +the states-general were opened by Louis in the Salle des Menus +Plaisirs at Versailles. Barentin, the keeper of the seals, informed +them that they were free to determine whether they would vote +by orders or vote by head. Necker, as director-general of the +finances, set forth the condition of the treasury and proposed +some small reforms. The Tiers État (Third Estate) was dissatisfied +that the question of joint or separate deliberation should +have been left open. It was aware that some of the nobles +and many of the inferior clergy agreed with it as to the need +for comprehensive reform. Joint deliberation would ensure a +majority to the reformers and therefore the abolition of privileges +and the extinction of feudal rights of property. Separate deliberation +would enable the majority among the nobles and the +superior clergy to limit reform. Hence it became the first object +of the Tiers État to effect the amalgamation of the three estates.</p> + +<p>The conflict between those who desired and those who resisted +amalgamation took the form of a conflict over the verification +of the powers of the deputies. The Tiers État insisted +that the deputies of all three estates should have their +<span class="sidenote">Conflict between the Three Estates.</span> +powers verified in common as the first step towards +making them all members of one House. It resolved +to hold its meetings in the Salle des Menus Plaisirs, whereas the +nobles and the clergy met in smaller apartments set aside for their +exclusive use. It refrained from taking any step which might +have implied that it was an organized assembly, and persevered +in regarding itself as a mere crowd of individual members +incapable of transacting business. Meanwhile the clergy and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>155</span> +the nobles began a separate verification of their powers. But +a few of the nobles and a great many of the clergy voted against +this procedure. On the 7th the Tiers État sent deputations to +exhort the other estates to union, while the clergy sent a deputation +to it with the proposal that each estate should name commissioners +to discuss the best method of verifying powers. +The Tiers État accepted the proposal and conferences were held, +but without result. It then made another appeal to the clergy +which was almost successful. The king interposed with a command +for the renewal of the conferences. They were resumed +under the presidency of Barentin, but again to no purpose.</p> + +<p>On the 10th of June Sieyès moved that the Tiers État should +for the last time invite the First and Second Estates to join in the +verification of powers and announce that, whether they did or +not, the work of verifying would begin forthwith. The motion +was carried by an immense majority. As there was no response, +the Tiers État on the 12th named Bailly provisional president +and commenced verification. Next day three curés of Poitou +came to have their powers verified. Other clergymen followed +later. When the work of verification was over, a title had to be +found for the body thus created, which would no longer accept +the style of the Tiers État. On the 15th Sieyès proposed that +they should entitle themselves the Assembly of the known and +verified representatives of the French nation. Mirabeau, Mounier +and others proposed various appellations. But success was +reserved for Legrand, an obscure deputy who proposed the +simple name of National Assembly. Withdrawing his own +motion, Sieyès adopted Legrand’s suggestion, which was carried +by 491 votes to 90. The Assembly went on to declare that it +placed the debts of the crown under the safeguard of the national +honour and that all existing taxes, although illegal as having +been imposed without the consent of the people, should +continue to be paid until the day of dissolution.</p> + +<p>By these proceedings the Tiers État and a few of the clergy +declared themselves the national legislature. Then and thereafter +the National Assembly assumed full sovereign +and constituent powers. Nobles and clergy might +<span class="sidenote">The National Assembly.</span> +come in if they pleased, but it could do without them. +The king’s assent to its measures would be convenient, +but not necessary. This boldness was rewarded, for on the 19th +the clergy decided by a majority of one in favour of joint verification. +On the same day the nobles voted an address to the king +condemning the action of the Tiers État. Left to himself, Louis +might have been too inert for resistance. But the queen and +his brother, the count of Artois, with some of the ministers and +courtiers, urged him to make a stand. A Séance Royale was +notified for the 22nd and workmen were sent to prepare the Salle +des Menus Plaisirs for the ceremony. On the 20th Bailly and the +deputies proceeded to the hall and found it barred against their +entrance. Thereupon they adjourned to a neighbouring tennis +<span class="sidenote">Oath of the Tennis Court.</span> +court, where Mounier proposed that they should swear +not to separate until they had established the constitution. +With a solitary exception they swore and the +Oath of the Tennis Court became an era in French +history. As the ministers could not agree on the policy which the +king should announce in the Séance Royale, it was postponed +to the 23rd. The Assembly found shelter in the church of St +Louis, where it was joined by the main body of the clergy and by +the first of the nobles.</p> + +<p>At the Séance Royale Louis made known his will that the +Estates should deliberate apart, and declared that if they should +refuse to help him he would do by his sole authority what was +necessary for the happiness of his people. When he quitted the +hall, some of the clergy and most of the nobles retired to their +separate chambers. But the rest, together with the Tiers État, +remained, and Mirabeau declared that, as they had come by the +will of the nation, force only should make them withdraw. +“Gentlemen,” said Sieyès, “you are to-day what you were +yesterday.” With one voice the Assembly proclaimed its +adhesion to its former decrees and the inviolability of its members. +In Versailles and in Paris popular feeling was clamorous for the +Assembly and against the court. During the next few days +many of the clergy and nobles, including the archbishop of Paris +and the duke of Orleans, joined the Assembly. Louis tamely +accepted his defeat. He recalled Necker, who had resigned +after the Séance Royale. On the 27th he wrote to those clerical +and noble deputies who still held out, urging submission. By +the 2nd of July the joint verification of powers was completed. +The last trace of the historic States-General disappeared and the +National Assembly was perfect. On the same day it claimed an +absolute discretion by a decree that the mandates of the electors +were not binding on its members.</p> + +<p>Having failed in their first attempt on the Assembly, the Court +party resolved to try what force could do. A large number of +troops, chiefly foreign regiments in the service of France, +were concentrated near Paris under the command of the +<span class="sidenote">Dismissal of Necker.</span> +marshal de Broglie. On Mirabeau’s motion the Assembly +voted an address to the king asking for their withdrawal. The +king replied that the troops were not meant to act against the +Assembly, but intimated his purpose of transferring the session +to some provincial town. On the same day he dismissed Necker +and ordered him to quit Versailles. These acts led to the first +insurrection of Paris. The capital had long been in a dangerous +condition. Bread was dear and employment was scarce. The +measures taken to relieve distress had allured a multitude of needy +and desperate men from the surrounding country. Among the +middle class there already existed a party, consisting of men like +Danton or Camille Desmoulins, which was prepared to go much +further than any of the leaders of the Assembly. The rich citizens +were generally fund-holders, who regarded the Assembly as the +one bulwark against a public bankruptcy. The duke of Orleans, +a weak and dissolute but ambitious man, had conceived the hope +of supplanting his cousin on the throne. He strained his wealth +and influence to recruit followers and to make mischief. The +gardens of his residence, the Palais Royal, became the centre of +political agitation. Ever since the elections virtual freedom of +the press and freedom of speech had prevailed in Paris. Clubs +were multiplied and pamphlets came forth every hour. The +municipal officers who were named by the Crown had little +influence with the citizens. The police were a mere handful. Of +the two line regiments quartered in the capital, one was Swiss and +therefore trusty; but the other, the Gardes Françaises, shared +all the feelings of the populace.</p> + +<p>On the 12th of July Camille Desmoulins announced the dismissal +of Necker to the crowd in the Palais Royal. Warmed by +his eloquence, they sallied into the street. Part of +Broglie’s troops occupied the Champs Elysées and the +<span class="sidenote">Rioting in Paris.</span> +Place Louis Quinze. After one or two petty encounters +with the mob they were withdrawn, either because their temper +was uncertain or because their commanders shunned responsibility. +Paris was thus left to the rioters, who seized arms +wherever they could find them, broke open the jails, burnt the +octroi barriers and soon had every man’s life and goods at their +discretion. Citizens with anything to lose were driven to act +for themselves. For the purpose of choosing its representatives +in the states-general the Third Estate of Paris had named 300 +electors. Their function once discharged, these men had no +public character, but they resolved that they would hold together +in order to watch over the interests of the city. After the Séance +Royale the municipal authority, conscious of its own weakness, +allowed them to meet at the Hôtel de Ville, where they proceeded +to consider the formation of a civic guard. On the 13th, when +all was anarchy in Paris, they were joined by Flesselles, Provost +of the Merchants, and other municipal officers. The project of a +civic guard was then adopted. The insurrection, however, ran +its course unchecked. Crowds of deserters from the regular +troops swelled the ranks of the insurgents. They attacked the +<span class="sidenote">Fall of the Bastille, July 14, 1789.</span> +Hôtel des Invalides and carried off all the arms +which were stored there. With the same object they +assailed the Bastille. The garrison was small and +disheartened, provisions were short, and after some +hours’ fighting De Launay the governor surrendered on +promise of quarter. He and several of his men were, notwithstanding, +butchered by the mob before they could be brought to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>156</span> +the Hôtel de Ville. As all Paris was in the hands of the insurgents, +the king saw the necessity of submission. On the morning of the +15th he entered the hall of the Assembly to announce that the +troops would be withdrawn. Immediately afterwards he dismissed +his new ministers and recalled Necker. Thereupon the +princes and courtiers most hostile to the National Assembly, +the count of Artois, the prince of Condé, the duke of Bourbon +and many others, feeling themselves no longer safe, quitted +France. Their departure is known as the first emigration.</p> + +<p>The capture of the Bastille was hailed throughout Europe as +symbolizing the fall of absolute monarchy, and the victory of the +insurgents had momentous consequences. Recognizing +<span class="sidenote">New municipality of Paris and National Guard.</span> +the 300 electors as a temporary municipal government, +the Assembly sent a deputation to confer with them at +the Hôtel de Ville, and on a sudden impulse one of these +deputies, Bailly, lately president of the Assembly, was +chosen to be mayor of Paris. The marquis Lafayette, +doubly popular as a veteran of the American War and as one of +the nobles who heartily upheld the cause of the Assembly, was +chosen commandant of the new civic force, thenceforwards +known as the National Guard. On the 17th Louis himself visited +Paris and gave his sanction to the new authorities. In the course +of the following weeks the example of Paris was copied throughout +France. All the cities and towns set up new elective authorities +and organized a National Guard. At the same time the revolution +<span class="sidenote">Revolution in the provinces.</span> +spread to the country districts. In most of the provinces +the peasants rose and stormed and burnt the +houses of the <i>seigneurs</i>, taking peculiar care to destroy +their title-deeds. Some of the <i>seigneurs</i> were murdered +and the rest were driven into the towns or across the frontier. +Amid the universal confusion the old administrative system +vanished. The intendants and sub-delegates quitted or were +driven from their posts. The old courts of justice, whether +royal or feudal, ceased to act. In many districts there was no +more police, public works were suspended and the collection of +taxes became almost impossible. The insurrection of July really +ended the <i>ancien régime</i>.</p> + +<p>Disorder in the provinces led directly to the proceedings on +the famous night of the 4th of August. While the Assembly was +considering a declaration which might calm revolt, the +vicomte de Noailles and the duc d’Aiguillon moved +<span class="sidenote">The 4th of August.</span> +that it should proclaim equality of taxation and the +suppression of feudal burdens. Other deputies rose to demand +the repeal of the game laws, the enfranchisement of such serfs +as were still to be found in France, and the abolition of tithes and +of feudal courts and to renounce all privileges, whether of classes, +of cities, or of provinces. Amid indescribable enthusiasm the +Assembly passed resolution after resolution embodying these +changes. The resolutions were followed by decrees sometimes +hastily and unskilfully drawn. In vain Sieyès remarked that in +extinguishing tithes the Assembly was making a present to every +landed proprietor. In vain the king, while approving most of +the decrees, tendered some cautious criticisms of the rest. The +majority did not, indeed, design to confiscate property wholesale. +They drew a distinction between feudal claims which did and +did not carry a moral claim to compensation. But they were +embarrassed by the wording of their own decrees and forestalled +by the violence of the people. The proceedings of the 4th of +August issued in a wholesale transfer of property from one class +to another without any indemnity for the losers.</p> + +<p>The work of drafting a constitution for France had already +been begun. Parties in the Assembly were numerous and ill-defined. +The Extreme Right, who desired to keep +the government as it stood, were a mere handful. +<span class="sidenote">Parties in the Assembly.</span> +The Right who wanted to revive, as they said, the +ancient constitution, in other words, to limit the king’s +power by periodic States-General of the old-fashioned sort, were +more numerous and had able chiefs in Cazalès and Maury, but +strove in vain against the spirit of the time. The Right Centre, +sometimes called the Monarchiens, were a large body and included +several men of talent, notably Mounier and Malouet, as well as +many men of rank and wealth. They desired a constitution like +that of England which should reserve a large executive power +to the king, while entrusting the taxing and legislative powers to a +modern parliament. The Left or Constitutionals, known afterwards +as the Feuillants, among whom Barnave and Charles and +Alexander Lameth were conspicuous, also wished to preserve +monarchy but disdained English precedent. They were possessed +with feelings then widespread, weariness of arbitrary government, +hatred of ministers and courtiers, and distrust not so much +of Louis as of those who surrounded him and influenced his +judgment. Republicans without knowing it, they grudged every +remnant of power to the Crown. The Extreme Left, still more +republican in spirit, of whom Robespierre was the most noteworthy, +were few and had little power. Mirabeau’s independence +of judgment forbids us to place him in any party.</p> + +<p>The first Constitutional Committee, elected on the 14th of July, +had Mounier for its reporter. It was instructed to begin with +drafting a Declaration of the Rights of Man. Six +weeks were spent by the Assembly in discussing this +<span class="sidenote">Declaration of the Rights of Man.</span> +document. The Committee then presented a report +which embodied the principle of two Chambers. This +principle contradicted the extreme democratic theories so much +in fashion. It also offended the self-love of most of the nobles +and the clergy who were loath that a few of their number should +be erected into a House of Lords. The Assembly rejected the +principle of two Chambers by nearly 10 to 1. The question +whether the king should have a veto on legislation was next +raised. Mounier contended that he should have an +<span class="sidenote">The royal veto.</span> +absolute veto, and was supported by Mirabeau, who +had already described the unlimited power of a single +Chamber as worse than the tyranny of Constantinople. The Left +maintained that the king, as depositary of the executive, should +be wholly excluded from the legislative power. Lafayette, who +imagined himself to be copying the American constitution, +proposed that the king should have a suspensive veto. Thinking +that it would be politic to claim no more, Necker persuaded +the king to intimate that he was satisfied with Lafayette’s +proposal. The suspensive veto was therefore adopted. As the +king had no power of dissolution, it was an idle form. Mounier +and his friends having resigned their places in the Constitutional +Committee, it came to an end and the Assembly elected a new +Committee which represented the opinions of the Left.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards a fresh revolt in Paris caused the king and the +Assembly to migrate thither. The old causes of disorder were +still working in that city. The scarcity of bread was set down +to conspirators against the Revolution. Riots were frequent +and persons supposed hostile to the Assembly and the nation +were murdered with impunity. The king still had counsellors +who wished for his departure as a means to regaining freedom +of action. At the end of September the Flanders regiment came +to Versailles to reinforce the Gardes du Corps. The officers of +the Gardes du Corps entertained the officers of the Flanders +regiment and of the Versailles National Guard at dinner in the +palace. The king, queen and dauphin visited the company. +There followed a vehement outbreak of loyalty. Rumour +enlarged the incident into a military plot against freedom. +Those who wanted a more thorough revolution wrought up the +<span class="sidenote">Removal of the royal family and Assembly to Paris.</span> +crowd and even respectable citizens wished to have the +king among them and amenable to their opinion. On +the 5th of October a mob which had gathered to +assault the Hôtel de Ville was diverted into a march on +Versailles. Lafayette was slow to follow it and, when +he arrived, took insufficient precautions. At daybreak +on the 6th some of the rioters made their way into the palace +and stormed the apartment of the queen who escaped with +difficulty. At length the National Guards arrived and the mob +was quieted by the announcement that the king had resolved +to go to Paris. The Assembly declared itself inseparable from +the king’s person. Louis and his family reached Paris on the +same evening and took up their abode in the Tuileries. A +little later the Assembly established itself in the riding school +of the palace. Thenceforward the king and queen were to all +intents prisoners. The Assembly itself was subject to constant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>157</span> +intimidation. Many members of the Right gave up the struggle +and emigrated, or at least withdrew from attendance, so that the +Left became supreme.</p> + +<p>Mirabeau had already taken alarm at the growing violence of +the Revolution. In September he had foretold that it would +not stop short of the death of both king and queen. +After the insurrection of October he sought to communicate +<span class="sidenote">Mirabeau and the court.</span> +with them through his friend the comte de +la Marck. In a remarkable correspondence he sketched +a policy for the king. The abolition of privilege and the establishment +of a parliamentary system were, he wrote, unalterable +facts which it would be madness to dispute. But a strong +executive authority was essential, and a king who frankly adopted +the Revolution might still be powerful. In order to rally the +sound part of the nation Louis should leave Paris, and, if necessary, +he should prepare for a civil war; but he should never +appeal to foreign powers. Neither the king nor the queen could +grasp the wisdom of this advice. They distrusted Mirabeau as +an unscrupulous adventurer, and were confirmed in this feeling +by his demands for money. His correspondence with the court, +although secret, was suspected. The politicians who envied +his talents and believed him a rascal raised the cry of treason. +In the Assembly Mirabeau, though sometimes successful on +particular questions, never had a chance of giving effect to his +policy as a whole. Whether even he could have controlled the +Revolution is highly doubtful; but his letters and minutes drawn +up for the king form the most striking monument of his genius +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Mirabeau</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Montmorin de Saint-Hérem</a></span>).</p> + +<p>Early in the year 1790 a dispute with England concerning +the frontier in North America induced the Spanish government +to claim the help of France under the Family Compact. +This demand led the Assembly to consider in what +<span class="sidenote">The Assembly and the royal power.</span> +hands the power of concluding alliances and of making +peace and war should be placed. Mirabeau tried to +keep the initiative for the king, subject to confirmation +by the Chamber. On Barnave’s motion the Assembly decreed that +the legislature should have the power of war and peace and the +king a merely advisory power. Mirabeau was defeated on another +point of the highest consequence, the inclusion of ministers +in the National Assembly. His colleagues generally adhered to +the principle that the legislative and executive powers should be +totally separate. The Left assumed that, if deputies could hold +office, the king would have the means of corrupting the ablest +and most influential. It was decreed that no deputy should +be minister while sitting in the House or for two years after. +Ministers excluded from the House being necessarily objects +of suspicion, the Assembly was careful to allow them the least +possible power. The old provinces were abolished, and France +was divided anew into eighty departments. Each department +<span class="sidenote">Reorganization of France.</span> +was subdivided into districts, cantons and communes. +The main business of administration, even the levying +of taxes, was entrusted to the elective local authorities. +The judicature was likewise made elective. The army +and the navy were so organized as to leave the king but a small +share in appointing officers and to leave the officers but scanty +means of maintaining discipline. Even the cases in which the +sovereign might be deposed were foreseen and expressly stated. +Monarchy was retained, but the monarch was regarded as a possible +traitor and every precaution was taken to render him harmless +even at the cost of having no effective national government.</p> + +<p>The distrust which the Assembly felt for the actual ministers +led it to undertake the business of government as well as the +business of reform. There were committees for all +the chief departments of state, a committee for the +<span class="sidenote">Executive committees of the Assembly.</span> +army, a committee for the navy, another for diplomacy, +another for finance. These committees sometimes +asked the ministers for information, but rarely took their advice. +Even Necker found the Assembly heedless of his counsels. The +condition of the treasury became worse day by day. The yield +of the indirect taxes fell off through the interruption of business, +and the direct taxes were in large measure withheld, for want of +an authority to enforce payment. With some trouble Necker +induced the Assembly to sanction first a loan of 30,000,000 +livres and then a loan of 80,000,000 livres. The public having +shown no eagerness to subscribe, Necker proposed that every +man should be invited to make a patriotic contribution of one-fourth +of his income. This expedient also failed. On the 10th +<span class="sidenote">Confiscation of church property.</span> +of October 1789 Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, proposed +that the Assembly should take possession of the lands +of the church. In November the Assembly enacted +that they should be at the disposal of the nation, which +would provide for the maintenance of the clergy. Since the +church lands were supposed to occupy one-fifth of France, the +Assembly thought that it had found an inexhaustible source +of public wealth. On the security of the church lands it based +a paper currency (the famous assignats). In December it ordered +an issue to the amount of 400,000,000 livres. As the revenue +still declined and the reforms enacted by the Assembly involved +<span class="sidenote">The assignats.</span> +a heavy outlay, it recurred again and again to this expedient. +Before its dissolution the Assembly had authorized +the creation of 1,800,000,000 livres of assignats and +the depreciation of its paper had begun. Finding that +he had lost all credit with the Assembly, Necker resigned office +and left France in September 1790.</p> + +<p>Even the committees of the Assembly had far less power +than the new municipal authorities throughout France. They +really governed so far as there was any government. +Often full of public spirit, they lacked experience and +<span class="sidenote">Power of the municipalities and popular clubs.</span> +in a time of peculiar difficulty had no guide save their +own discretion. They opened letters, arrested suspects, +controlled the trade in corn, and sent their National +Guards on such errands as they thought proper. +The political clubs which sprang up all over the country often +presumed to act as though they were public authorities (see +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Jacobins</a></span>). The revolutionary journalists, Desmoulins in his +<i>Révolutions de France et de Brabant</i>, Loustallot in his <i>Révolutions +de Paris</i>, Marat in his <i>Ami du peuple</i>, continued to feed the +fire of discord. Amid this anarchy it became a practice for the +National Guards of different districts to form federations, that +is, to meet and swear loyalty to each other and obedience to the +laws made by the National Assembly. At the suggestion of the +municipality of Paris the Assembly decreed a general federation +of all France, to be held on the anniversary of the fall of the +Bastille. The ceremony took place in the Champ de Mars (July +14, 1790) in presence of the king, the queen, the Assembly, +and an enormous concourse of spectators. It was attended by +deputations from the National Guards in every part of the +kingdom, from the regular regiments, and from the crews of the +fleet. Talleyrand celebrated Mass, and Lafayette was the first +to swear fidelity to the Assembly and the nation. In this gathering +the provincial deputations caught the revolutionary fever +of Paris. Still graver was the effect upon the regular army. +It had been disaffected since the outbreak of the Revolution. +The rank and file complained of their food, their lodging and +their pay. The non-commissioned officers, often intelligent +<span class="sidenote">Disaffection in the army.</span> +and hard-working, were embittered by the refusal +of promotion. The officers, almost all nobles, rarely +showed much concern for their men, and were often +mere courtiers and triflers. After the festival of the +federation the soldiers were drawn into the political clubs, and +named regimental committees to defend their interests. Not +content with asking for redress of grievances, they sometimes +seized the regimental chest or imprisoned their officers. In +August a formidable outbreak at Nancy was only quelled with +much loss of life. Desertion became more frequent than ever, and +the officers, finding their position unbearable, began to emigrate. +Similar causes produced an even worse effect upon the navy.</p> + +<p>By its rough handling of the church the Assembly brought +fresh trouble upon France. The suppression of tithe and the +confiscation of church lands had reduced the clergy to +live on whatever stipend the legislature might think fit +<span class="sidenote">Civil constitution of the clergy.</span> +to give them. A law of February 1790 suppressed the +religious orders not engaged in education or in works of +charity, and forbade the introduction of new ones. Monastic vows +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>158</span> +were deprived of legal force and a pension was granted to the +religious who were cast upon the world. These measures aroused +no serious discontent; but the so-called civil constitution of +the clergy went much further. Old ecclesiastical divisions were +set aside. Henceforth the diocese was to be conterminous with +the department, and the parish with the commune. The electors +of the commune were to choose the curé, the electors of the department +the bishop. Every curé was to receive at least 1200 livres +(about £50) a year. Relatively modest stipends were assigned +to bishops and archbishops. French citizens were forbidden to +acknowledge any ecclesiastical jurisdiction outside the kingdom. +The Assembly not only adopted this constitution but decreed +that all beneficed ecclesiastics should swear to its observance. +As the constitution implicitly abrogated the papal authority and +entrusted the choice of bishops and curés to electors who often +were not Catholics, most of the clergy declined to swear and lost +their preferments. Their places were filled by election. Thenceforwards +the clergy were divided into hostile factions, the Constitutionals +and the Nonjurors. As the generality of Frenchmen +at that time were orthodox although not zealous Catholics, +the Nonjurors carried with them a large part of the laity. The +Assembly was misled by its Jansenist, Protestant and Free-thinking +members, natural enemies of an established church +which had persecuted them to the best of its power.</p> + +<p>In colonial affairs the Assembly acted with the same imprudence. +Eager to set an example of suppressing slavery, it +took measures which prepared a terrible negro insurrection +in St Domingo. With regard to foreign relations +<span class="sidenote">The Assembly, the colonies, and foreign powers.</span> +the Assembly showed itself well-meaning but indiscreet. +It protested in good faith that it desired no conquests +and aimed only at peace. Yet it laid down maxims +which involved the utmost danger of war. It held +that no treaty could be binding without the national consent. +As this consent had not been given to any existing treaty, they +were all liable to be revised by the French government without +consulting the other parties. Thus the Assembly treated the +Family Compact as null and void. Similarly, when it abolished +feudal tenures in France, it ignored the fact that the rights of +certain German princes over lands in Alsace were guaranteed by +the treaties of Westphalia. It offered them compensation in +money, and when this was declined, took no heed of their protests. +Again, in the papal territory of Avignon a large number of +the inhabitants declared for union with France. The Assembly +could hardly be restrained by Mirabeau from acting upon their +vote and annexing Avignon. Some time after his death it was +annexed. The other states of Europe did not admit the doctrines +of the Assembly, but peace was not broken. Foreign statesmen +who flattered themselves that France was sinking into anarchy +and therefore into decay were content to follow their respective +ambitions without the dread of French interference.</p> + +<p>Deprived of authority and in fact a prisoner, Louis had for +many months acquiesced in the decrees of the Assembly however +distasteful. But the civil constitution of the clergy +wounded him in his conscience as well as in his pride. +<span class="sidenote">Attempt of Louis XVI. to escape from Paris.</span> +From the autumn of 1790 onwards he began to scheme +for his liberation. Himself incapable of strenuous +effort, he was spurred on by Marie Antoinette, who +keenly felt her own degradation and the curtailment of that +royal prerogative which her son would one day inherit. The king +and queen failed to measure the forces which had caused the +Revolution. They ascribed all their misfortunes to the work of +a malignant faction, and believed that, if they could escape from +Paris, a display of force by friendly powers would enable them +to restore the supremacy of the crown. But no foreign ruler, +not even the emperor Leopold II., gave the king or queen any +encouragement. Whatever secrecy they might observe, the +adherents of the Revolution divined their wish to escape. When +Louis tried to leave the Tuileries for St Cloud at Easter 1791, +in order to enjoy the ministrations of a nonjuring priest, the +National Guards of Paris would not let him budge. Mirabeau, +who had always dissuaded the king from seeking foreign help, +died on the 2nd of April. Finally the king and queen resolved to +fly to the army of the East, which the marquis de Bouillé had in +some measure kept under discipline. Sheltered by him they could +await foreign succour or a reaction at home. On the evening +of the 20th of June they escaped from the Tuileries. Louis left +behind him a declaration complaining of the treatment which he +had received and revoking his assent to all measures which had +been laid before him while under restraint. On the following +day the royal party was captured at Varennes and sent back to +Paris. The king’s eldest brother, the count of Provence, who had +laid his plans much better, made his escape to Brussels and joined +the <i>émigrés</i>.</p> + +<p>It was no longer possible to pretend that the Revolution had +been made with the free consent of the king. Some Republicans +called for his deposition. Afraid to take a course which involved +danger both at home and abroad, the Assembly decreed that +Louis should be suspended from his office. The club of the +Cordeliers (<i>q.v.</i>), led by Danton, demanded not only his deposition +but his trial. A petition to that effect having been exposed for +signature on the altar in the Champ de Mars, a disturbance ensued +and the National Guard fired on the crowd, killing a few and +wounding many. This incident afterwards became known as +the massacre of the Champ de Mars. On the other hand, the +leaders of the Left, Barnave and the Lameths, felt that they had +weakened the executive power too much. They would gladly +have come to an understanding with the king and revised the +constitution so as to strengthen his prerogative. They failed in +both objects. Louis and still more Marie Antoinette regarded +them with incurable distrust. The Constitutional Act without +any material change was voted on the 3rd of September. +On the 14th Louis swore to the Constitution, thus regaining his +nominal sovereignty. The National Assembly was dissolved +on the 30th. Upon Robespierre’s motion it had decreed that +none of its members should be capable of sitting in the next +legislature.</p> + +<p>If we view the work of the National Assembly as a whole, we +are struck by the immense demolition which it effected. No +other legislature has ever destroyed so much in the +same time. The old form of government, the old +<span class="sidenote">Review of the work of the National Assembly.</span> +territorial divisions, the old fiscal system, the old +judicature, the old army and navy, the old relations +of Church and State, the old law relating to property +in land, all were shattered. Such a destruction could not have +been effected without the support of popular opinion. Most of +what the Assembly did had been suggested in the <i>cahiers</i>, and +many of its decrees were anticipated by actual revolt. In its +constructive work many sound maxims were embodied. It +asserted the principles of civil equality and freedom of conscience, +it reformed the criminal law, and laid down a just scheme of +taxation. Not intelligence and public spirit but political wisdom +was lacking to the National Assembly. Its members did not +suspect how limited is the usefulness of general propositions in +practical life. Nor did they perceive that new ideas can be +applied only by degrees in an old world. The Constitution of +1791 was impracticable and did not last a year. The civil constitution +of the clergy was wholly mischievous. In the attempt +to govern, the Assembly failed altogether. It left behind an +empty treasury, an undisciplined army and navy, a people +debauched by safe and successful riot.</p> + +<p>At the elections of 1791 the party which desired to carry the +Revolution further had a success out of all keeping with its +numbers. This was due partly to a weariness of politics +which had come over the majority of French citizens, +<span class="sidenote">The Legislative Assembly.</span> +partly to downright intimidation exercised by the +Jacobin Club and by its affiliated societies throughout +the kingdom. The Legislative Assembly met on the 1st of +October. It consisted of 745 members. Few were nobles, very few +were clergymen, and the great body was drawn from the middle +class. The members were generally young, and, since none had +sat in the previous Assembly, they were wholly without experience. +The Right consisted of the Feuillants (<i>q.v.</i>). They +numbered about 160, and among them were some able men, such +as Matthieu Dumas and Bigot de Préamenau, but they were +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>159</span> +guided chiefly by persons outside the House, because incapable +of re-election, Barnave, Duport and the Lameths. The Left consisted +of the Jacobins, a term which still included the party +afterwards known as the Girondins or Girondists (<i>q.v.</i>)—so +termed because several of their leaders came from the region of +the Gironde in southern France. They numbered about 330. +Among the extreme Left sat Cambon, Couthon, Merlin de +Thionville. The Girondins could claim the most brilliant orators, +Vergniaud, Guadet, Isnard. Inferior to these men in talent, +Brissot de Warville, a restless pamphleteer, exerted more influence +over the party which has sometimes gone by his name. The Left +as a whole was republican, although it did not care to say so. +Strong in numbers, it was reinforced by the disorderly elements +in Paris and throughout France. The remainder of the House, +about 250 deputies, scarcely belonged to any definite party, +but voted oftenest with the Left, as the Left was the most +powerful.</p> + +<p>The Left had three objects of enmity: first, the king, the queen +and the royal family; secondly, the <i>émigrés</i>; and thirdly, the +clergy. The king could not like the new constitution, +although, if left to himself, indolence and good nature +<span class="sidenote">The court and the émigrés.</span> +might have rendered him passive. The queen throughout +had only one thought, to shake off the impotence +and humiliation of the crown; and for this end she still clung +to the hope of foreign succour and corresponded with Vienna. +Those <i>émigrés</i> who had assembled in arms on the territories of +the electors of Mainz and Treves (Trier) and in the Austrian +Netherlands had put themselves in the position of public enemies. +Their chiefs were the king’s brothers, who affected to consider +Louis as a captive and his acts as therefore invalid. The count +of Provence gave himself the airs of a regent and surrounded +himself with a ministry. The <i>émigrés</i> were not, however, +dangerous. They were only a few thousand strong; they had no +competent leader and no money; they were unwelcome to the +rulers whose hospitality they abused. The nonjuring clergy, +although harassed by the local authorities, kept the respect and +confidence of most Catholics. No acts of disloyalty were proved +against them, and commissioners of the National Assembly +reported to its successor that their flocks only desired to be let +alone. But the anti-clerical bias of the Legislative Assembly +was too strong for such a policy.</p> + +<p>The king’s ministers, named by him and excluded from the +Assembly, were mostly persons of little mark. Montmorin gave +up the portfolio of foreign affairs on the 31st of October and was +succeeded by De Lessart. Cahier de Gerville was minister of +the interior; Tarbé, minister of finance; and Bertrand de Molleville, +minister of marine. But the only minister who influenced +the course of affairs was the comte de Narbonne, minister of +war.</p> + +<p>On the 9th of November the Assembly decreed that the <i>émigrés</i> +assembled on the frontiers should be liable to the penalties of +death and confiscation unless they returned to France +by the 1st of January following. Louis did not love +<span class="sidenote">The king and the nonjurors.</span> +his brothers, and he detested their policy, which +without rendering him any service made his liberty +and even his life precarious; yet, loath to condemn them to death, +he vetoed the decree. On the 29th of November the Assembly +decreed that every nonjuring clergyman must take within eight +days the civic oath, substantially the same as the oath previously +administered, on pain of losing his pension and, if any troubles +broke out, of being deported. This decree Louis vetoed as a +matter of conscience. In either case his resistance only served +to give a weapon to his enemies in the Assembly. But foreign +affairs were at this time the most critical. The armed bodies of +<i>émigrés</i> on the territory of the Empire afforded matter of complaint +to France. The persistence of the French in refusing more +than a money compensation to the German princes who had +claims in Alsace afforded matter of complaint to the Empire. +Foreign statesmen noticed with alarm the effect of the French +Revolution upon opinion in their own countries, and they +resented the endeavours of French revolutionists to make +converts there. Of these statesmen, the emperor Leopold was +the most intelligent. He had skilfully extricated himself from +the embarrassments at home and abroad left by his predecessor +Joseph. He was bound by family ties to Louis, and he was +obliged, as chief of the Holy Roman Empire, to protect the border +princes. On the other hand, he understood the weakness of the +Habsburg monarchy. He knew that the Austrian Netherlands, +where he had with difficulty restored his authority, were full of +friends of the Revolution and that a French army would be welcomed +by many Belgians. He despised the weakness and the +folly of the <i>émigrés</i> and excluded them from his councils. He +earnestly desired to avoid a war which might endanger his sister +or her husband. In August 1791 he had met Frederick William +<span class="sidenote">Declaration of Pillnitz.</span> +II. of Prussia at Pillnitz near Dresden, and the two +monarchs had joined in a declaration that they considered +the restoration of order and of monarchy in +France an object of interest to all sovereigns. They +further declared that they would be ready to act for this purpose +in concert with the other powers. This declaration appears to +have been drawn from Leopold by pressure of circumstances. +He well knew that concerted action of the powers was impossible, +as the English government had firmly resolved not to meddle with +French affairs. After Louis had accepted the constitution, +Leopold virtually withdrew his declaration. Nevertheless it +was a grave error of judgment and contributed to the approaching +war.</p> + +<p>In France many persons desired war for various reasons. +Narbonne trusted to find in it the means of restoring a certain +authority to the crown and limiting the Revolution. He contemplated +a war with Austria only. The Girondins desired war +in the hope that it would enable them to abolish monarchy +altogether. They desired a general war because they believed +that it would carry the Revolution into other countries and make +it secure in France by making it universal. The extreme Left +had the same objects, but it held that a war for those objects could +not safely be entrusted to the king and his ministers. Victory +would revive the power of the crown; defeat would be the undoing +of the Revolution. Hence Robespierre and those who +thought with him desired peace. The French nation generally +had never approved of the Austrian alliance, and regarded the +Habsburgs as traditional enemies. The king and queen, however, +who looked for help from abroad and especially from Leopold, +dreaded a war with Austria and had no faith in the schemes of +Narbonne. Nor was France in a condition to wage a serious war. +The constitution was unworkable and the governing authorities +were mutually hostile. The finances remained in disorder, and +assignats of the face value of 900,000,000 livres were issued by +the Legislative Assembly in less than a year. The army had been +thinned by desertion and was enervated by long indiscipline. +The fortresses were in bad condition and short of supplies.</p> + +<p>In October Leopold ordered the dispersion of the <i>émigrés</i> who +had mustered in arms in the Austrian Netherlands. His example +was followed by the electors of Treves and Mainz. At the same +time they implored the emperor’s protection, and the Austrian +chancellor Kaunitz informed Noailles the French ambassador +that this protection would be given if necessary. Narbonne +demanded a credit of 20,000,000 livres, which the Assembly +granted. He made a tour of inspection in the north of France +and reported untruly to the Assembly that all was in readiness +for war. On the 14th of January 1792 the diplomatic committee +reported to the Assembly that the emperor should be required to +give satisfactory assurances before the 10th of February. The +Assembly put off the term to the 1st of March. In February +Leopold concluded a defensive treaty with Frederick William. +But there was no mutual confidence between the sovereigns, who +were at that very time pursuing opposite policies with regard to +Poland. Leopold still hesitated and still hoped to avoid war. He +died on the 1st of March, and the imperial dignity became vacant. +The hereditary dominions of Austria passed to his son Francis, +afterwards the emperor Francis II., a youth of small abilities and +no experience. The real conduct of affairs fell, therefore, to the +aged Kaunitz. In France Narbonne failed to carry the king or +his colleagues along with him. The king took courage to dismiss +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>160</span> +him on the 9th of March, whereupon the assembly testified its +confidence in Narbonne. De Lessart having incurred its anger +by the tameness of his replies to Austrian dictation, the Assembly +voted his impeachment.</p> + +<p>The king, seeing no other course open, formed a new ministry +which was chiefly Girondin. Roland became minister of the +interior, Clavière of finance, De Grave of war, and +Lacoste of marine. Far abler and more resolute than +<span class="sidenote">War declared against Austria.</span> +any of these men was Dumouriez, the new minister +for foreign affairs. A soldier by profession, he had +been employed in the secret diplomacy of Louis XV. and had thus +gained a wide knowledge of international politics. He stood +aloof from parties and had no rigid principles, but held views +closely resembling those of Narbonne. He wished for a war with +Austria which should restore some influence to the crown and +make himself the arbiter of France. The king bent to necessity, +and on the 20th of April came to the Assembly with the proposal +that war should be declared against Austria. It was carried by +acclamation. Dumouriez intended to begin with an invasion +of the Austrian Netherlands. As this would awaken English +jealousy, he sent Talleyrand to London with assurances that, +if victorious, the French would annex no territory.</p> + +<p>It was designed that the French should invade the Netherlands +at three points simultaneously. Lafayette was to march against +Namur, Biron against Mons, and Dillon against Tournay. But +the first movement disclosed the miserable state of the army. +Smitten with panic, Dillon’s force fled at sight of the enemy, and +Dillon, after receiving a wound from one of his own soldiers, +was murdered by the mob of Lille. Biron was easily routed +before Mons. On hearing of these disasters Lafayette found it +necessary to retreat. This shameful discomfiture quickened all +the suspicion and jealousy fermenting in France. De Grave had +to resign and was succeeded by Servan. The Austrian forces in +the Netherlands were, however, so weak that they could not take +the offensive. Austria demanded help from Prussia under the +recent alliance, and the claim was admitted. Prussia declared +war against France, and the duke of Brunswick was chosen to +command the allied forces, but various causes delayed action. +Austrian and Prussian interests clashed in Poland. The Austrian +government wished to preserve a harmless neighbour. The +Prussian government desired another partition and a large tract +of Polish territory. Only after long discussion was it agreed that +Prussia should be free to act in Poland, while Austria might find +compensation in provinces conquered from France.</p> + +<p>A respite was thus given and something was done to improve +the army. Meantime the Assembly passed three decrees: one +for the deportation of nonjuring priests, another to suppress the +king’s Constitutional Guard, and a third for the establishment +of a camp of <i>fédérés</i> near Paris. Louis consented to sacrifice +his guard, but vetoed the other decrees. Roland having addressed +to him an arrogant letter of remonstrance, the king with the +support of Dumouriez dismissed Roland, Servan and Clavière. +Dumouriez then took the ministry of war, and the other places +were filled with such men as could be had. Dumouriez, who +cared only for the successful prosecution of the war, urged the +king to accept the decrees. As Louis was obstinate, he felt that +he could do no more, resigned office on the 15th of June and +<span class="sidenote">Émeute of the 20th of June 1792.</span> +went to join the army of the north. Lafayette, who +remained faithful to the constitution of 1791, ventured +on a letter of remonstrance to the Assembly. It paid +no attention, for Lafayette could no longer sway the +people. The Jacobins tried to frighten the king into accepting the +decrees and recalling his ministers. On the 20th of June the +armed populace invaded the hall of the Assembly and the royal +apartments in the Tuileries. For some hours the king and queen +were in the utmost peril. With passive courage Louis refrained +from making any promise to the insurgents.</p> + +<p>The failure of the insurrection encouraged a movement in +favour of the king. Some twenty thousand Parisians signed a +petition expressing sympathy with Louis. Addresses of like +tenour poured in from the departments and the provincial cities. +Lafayette himself came to Paris in the hope of rallying the +constitutional party, but the king and queen eluded his offers of +assistance. They had always disliked and distrusted Lafayette +and the Feuillants, and preferred to rest their hopes of deliverance +on the foreigner. Lafayette returned to his troops without having +effected anything. The Girondins made a last advance to Louis, +offering to save the monarchy if he would accept them as +ministers. His refusal united all the Jacobins in the project of +overturning the monarchy by force. The ruling spirit of this new +revolution was Danton, a barrister only thirty-two years of age, +who had not sat in either Assembly, although he had been the +leader of the Cordeliers, an advanced republican club, and had +a strong hold on the common people of Paris. Danton and his +friends were assisted in their work by the fear of invasion, for +the allied army was at length mustering on the frontier. The +Assembly declared the country in danger. All the regular troops +in or near Paris were sent to the front. Volunteers and <i>fédérés</i> +were constantly arriving in Paris, and, although most went on to +join the army, the Jacobins enlisted those who were suitable for +their purpose, especially some 500 whom Barbaroux, a Girondin, +had summoned from Marseilles. At the same time the National +Guard was opened to the lowest class. Brunswick’s famous +declaration of the 25th of July, announcing that the allies would +enter France to restore the royal authority and would visit the +Assembly and the city of Paris with military execution if any +further outrage were offered to the king, heated the republican +spirit to fury. It was resolved to strike the decisive blow on the +10th of August.</p> + +<p>On the night of the 9th a new revolutionary Commune took +possession of the hôtel de ville, and early on the morning of the +10th the insurgents assailed the Tuileries. As the +preparations of the Jacobins had been notorious, some +<span class="sidenote">Rising of the 10th of August.</span> +measures of defence had been taken. Beside a few +gentlemen in arms and a number of National Guards +the palace was garrisoned by the Swiss Guard, about 950 strong. +The disparity of force was not so great as to make resistance +altogether hopeless. But Louis let himself be persuaded into +betraying his own cause and retiring with his family under the +shelter of the Assembly. The National Guards either dispersed +or fraternized with the assailants. The Swiss Guard stood firm, +and, possibly by accident, a fusillade began. The enemy were +gaining ground when the Swiss received an order from the king to +cease firing and withdraw. They were mostly shot down as they +were retiring, and of those who surrendered many were murdered +in cold blood next day. The king and queen spent long hours in +a reporter’s box while the Assembly discussed their fate and the +fate of the French monarchy. Little more than a third of the +deputies were present and they were almost all Jacobins. They +decreed that Louis should be suspended from his office and that +a convention should be summoned to give France a new constitution. +An executive council was formed by recalling Roland, +Clavière and Servan to office and joining with them Danton as +minister of justice, Lebrun as minister of foreign affairs, and +Monge as minister of marine.</p> + +<p>When Lafayette heard of the insurrection in Paris he tried +to rally his troops in defence of the constitution, but they refused +to follow him. He was driven to cross the frontier +and surrender himself to the Austrians. Dumouriez +<span class="sidenote">The revolutionary Commune of Paris.</span> +was named his successor. But the new government was +still beset with danger. It had no root in law and little +hold on public opinion. It could not lean on the Assembly, a +mere shrunken remnant, whose days were numbered. It remained +dependent on the power which had set it up, the revolutionary +Commune of Paris. The Commune could therefore extort +what concessions it pleased. It got the custody of the king and +his family who were imprisoned in the Temple. Having obtained +an indefinite power of arrest, it soon filled the prisons of Paris. +As the elections to the Convention were close at hand, the Commune +resolved to strike the public with terror by the slaughter +of its prisoners. It found its opportunity in the progress of +invasion. On the 19th Brunswick crossed the frontier. On the +22nd Longwy surrendered. Verdun was invested and seemed +likely to fall. On the 1st of September the Commune decreed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>161</span> +that on the following day the tocsin should be rung, all able-bodied +citizens convened in the Champs de Mars, and 60,000 +<span class="sidenote">The September massacres.</span> +volunteers enrolled for the defence of the country. +While this assembly was in progress gangs of assassins +were sent to the prisons and began a butchery which +lasted four days and consumed 1400 victims. The Commune +addressed a circular letter to the other cities of France +inviting them to follow the example. A number of state prisoners +awaiting trial at Orleans were ordered to Paris and on the way +were murdered at Versailles. The Assembly offered a feeble +resistance to these crimes. Danton can hardly be acquitted of +connivance at them. Roland hinted disapproval, but did not +venture more. He with many other Girondins had been marked +for slaughter in the original project.</p> + +<p>The elections to the Convention were by almost universal +suffrage, but indifference or intimidation reduced the voters to a +small number. Many who had sat in the National, +and many more who had sat in the Legislative +<span class="sidenote">The National Convention.</span> +Assembly were returned. The Convention met on the +20th of September. Like the previous assemblies, +it did not fall into well-defined parties. The success of the +Jacobins in overthrowing the monarchy had ended their union. +Thenceforwards the name of Jacobin was confined to the smaller +and more fanatical group, while the rest came to be known as +the Girondins. The Jacobins, about 100 strong, formed the Left +of the Convention, afterwards known from the raised benches on +which they sat as the Mountain (<i>q.v.</i>). The Girondins, numbering +perhaps 180, formed the Right. The rest of the House, nearly +500 members, voted now on one side now on the other, until in +the course of the Terror they fell under the Jacobin domination. +This neutral mass is often termed the Plain, in allusion to its +seats on the floor of the House. The Convention as a whole was +Republican, if not on principle, from the feeling that no other +<span class="sidenote">Abolition of the monarchy.</span> +form of government could be established. It decreed +the abolition of monarchy on the 21st of September. +A committee was named to draft a new constitution, +which was presented and decreed in the following June, +but never took effect and was superseded by a third constitution +in 1795. The actual government of France was by committees +of the Convention, but some months passed before it could be +fully organized.</p> + +<p>The inner history of the Convention was strange and terrible. +It turned on the successive schisms in the ruling minority. +Whichever side prevailed destroyed its adversaries +only to divide afresh and renew the strife until the +<span class="sidenote">Jacobins and Girondins.</span> +victors were at length so reduced that their yoke was +shaken off and the mass of the Convention, hitherto +benumbed by fear, resumed its freedom and the government of +France. The first and most memorable of these contests was +the quarrel between Jacobin and Girondin. Both parties were +republican and democratic; both wished to complete the Revolution; +both were determined to maintain the integrity of France. +But they differed in circumstances and temperament. Although +the leaders on both sides were of the middle class, the Girondins +represented the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, the Jacobins represented the populace. +The Girondins desired a speedy return to law and order; the +Jacobins thought that they could keep power only by violence. +The Jacobins leant on the revolutionary commune and the mob +of Paris; the Girondins leant on the thriving burghers of the +provincial cities. Despite their smaller number the Jacobins were +victors. They were the more resolute and unscrupulous. The +Girondins numbered many orators, but not one man of action. +The Jacobins controlled the parent club with its affiliated societies +and the whole machinery of terror. The Girondins had no +organized force at their disposal. The Jacobins perpetuated in +a new form the old centralization of power to which France was +accustomed. The Girondins addressed themselves to provincials +who had lost the power of initiative. They were termed federalists +by their enemies and accused, unjustly enough, of wishing +to dissolve the national unity.</p> + +<p>Even in the first days of the Convention the feud broke out. +The Girondins condemned the September massacres and dreaded +the Parisian populace. Barbaroux accused Robespierre of aiming +at a dictatorship, and Buzot demanded a guard recruited in the +departments to protect the Convention. In October Louvet +reiterated the charge against Robespierre, and Barbaroux called +for the dissolution of the Commune of Paris. But the Girondins +gained no tangible result from this wordy warfare. For a time +the question how to dispose of the king diverted the thoughts of +all parties. It was approached in a political, not in a judicial +spirit. The Jacobins desired the death of Louis, partly because +they hated kings and deemed him a traitor, partly because they +wished to envenom the Revolution, defy Europe and compromise +their more temperate colleagues. The Girondins wished to spare +Louis, but were afraid of incurring the reproach of royalism. +At this critical moment the discovery of the famous iron chest, +containing papers which showed that many public men had +intrigued with the court, was disastrous for Louis. Members of +the Convention were anxious to be thought severe lest they should +be thought corrupt. Robespierre frankly demanded that Louis +as a public enemy should be put to death without form of trial. +The majority shrank from such open injustice and decreed on +the 3rd of December that Louis should be tried by the Convention.</p> + +<p>A committee of twenty-one was chosen to frame the indictment +against Louis, and on the 11th of December he was brought to +the bar for the first time to hear the charges read. +The most essential might be summed up in the statement +<span class="sidenote">Trial and execution of Louis XVI.</span> +that he had plotted against the Constitution and +against the safety of the kingdom. On the 26th Louis +appeared at the bar a second time, and the trial began. The +advocates of Louis could plead that all his actions down to the +dissolution of the National Assembly came within the amnesty +then granted, and that the Constitution had proclaimed his +person inviolable, while enacting for certain offences the penalty +of deposition which he had already undergone. Such arguments +were not likely to weigh with such a tribunal. The +Mountain called for immediate sentence of death; the Girondins +desired an appeal to the people of France. The galleries of the +Convention were packed with adherents of the Jacobins, whose +fury, not confined to words, struck terror into all who might +incline towards mercy. In Paris unmistakable signs announced +a new insurrection, to be followed perhaps by new massacres. +On the question whether Louis was guilty none ventured to give +a negative vote. The motion for an appeal to the people was +rejected by 424 votes to 283. The penalty of death was adopted +by 361 votes against 360 in favour of other penalties or of postponing +at least the execution of the sentence. On the 21st of +January 1793 Louis was beheaded in the Place de la Révolution, +now the Place de la Concorde.</p> + +<p>Between the deposition and the death of Louis the war had +run a surprising course. Accompanied by King Frederick +William, Brunswick had entered France with 80,000 +men, of whom more than half were Prussians, the +<span class="sidenote">Battle of Valmy.</span> +best soldiers in Europe. The disorder of France was +such that many expected a triumphal march to Paris. But the +Allies had opened the campaign late; they moved slowly; +the weather broke, and sickness began to waste their ranks. +Dumouriez succeeded in rousing the spirit of the French; he +occupied the defiles of the forest of Argonne, thus causing the +enemy to lose many valuable days, and when at last they turned +his position, he retreated without loss. At Valmy on the 20th +of September the two armies came in contact. The affair was +only a cannonade, but the French stood firm and the advance of +the Allies was stayed. Brunswick had no heart for his work; +the king was ill satisfied with the Austrians, and both were alarmed +by the ravages of disease among the soldiers. Within ten days +after the affair of Valmy they began their retreat. Dumouriez, +who still hoped to detach Prussia from Austria, left them unmolested. +When the enemy had quitted France, he invaded +Hainaut and defeated the Austrians at Jemappes on the 6th of +November. In Belgium a large party regarded the French as +deliverers. Dumouriez entered Brussels without further resistance, +and was soon master of the whole country. Elsewhere +the French were equally successful. With a slight force Custine +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>162</span> +assailed the electorate of Mainz. The common people were +friendly, and he had no trouble in occupying the country as far +as the Rhine. The king of Sardinia having shown a hostile +temper, Montesquiou made an easy conquest of Savoy. At the +close of 1792 the relative position of France and her enemies +had been reversed. It was seen that the French were still able +to wage war, and that the revolutionary spirit had permeated +the adjoining countries, while the old governments of Europe, +jealous of one another and uncertain of the loyalty of their +subjects, were ill qualified for resistance.</p> + +<p>Intoxicated with these victories, the Convention abandoned +itself to the fervour of propaganda and conquest. The river +Scheldt had been closed to commerce by various treaties to which +England and Holland, neutral powers, were parties. Without a +pretence of negotiation the French government declared on the +16th of November that the Scheldt was thenceforwards open. +On the 19th a decree of the Convention offered the aid of France +to all nations which were striving after freedom—in other words, +to the malcontents in every neighbouring state. Not long +afterwards the Convention annexed Savoy, with the consent, +it should be added, of many Savoyards. On the 15th of +December the Convention decreed that all peoples freed by its +assistance should carry out a revolution like that which had +been made in France on pain of being treated as enemies. +Towards Great Britain the executive council and the Convention +behaved with singular folly. There, in spite of a growing antipathy +to the Revolution, Pitt earnestly desired to maintain peace. +The conquest of the Netherlands and the symptoms of a wish to +annex that country made his task most difficult. But the French +<span class="sidenote">The first coalition against France.</span> +government underrated the strength of Great Britain, +imagining that all Englishmen who desired parliamentary +reform desired revolution, and that a few +democratic societies represented the nation. When +Monge announced the intention of attacking Great Britain on +behalf of the English republicans, the British government and +nation were thoroughly alarmed and roused; and when the +news of the execution of Louis XVI. was received, Chauvelin, +the French envoy, was ordered to quit England. France declared +war against England and Holland on the 1st of February and +soon afterwards against Spain. In the course of the year 1793 +the Empire, the kings of Portugal and Naples and the grand-duke +of Tuscany declared war against France. Thus was formed +the first coalition.</p> + +<p>France was not prepared to encounter so many enemies. +Administrative confusion had been heightened by the triumph of +the Jacobins. Servan was succeeded as minister of war by Pache +who was incapable and dishonest. The army of Dumouriez was +left in such want that it dwindled rapidly. The commissioners +of the Convention plundered the Netherlands with so little +remorse that the people became bitterly hostile. The attempt to +enforce a revolution of the French sort on the Catholic and conservative +Belgians drove them to fury. By every unfair means +the commissioners extorted the semblance of a popular vote in +favour of incorporation, and France annexed the Netherlands. +This was the last outrage. When a new Austrian army under the +prince of Coburg entered the country, Dumouriez, who had +invaded Holland, was unable to defend Belgium. On the 18th +of March he was defeated at Neerwinden, and a few days later he +was driven back to the frontier. Alike on public and personal +grounds Dumouriez was the enemy of the government. Trusting +in his influence over the army he resolved to lead it against the +Convention, and, in order to secure his rear, he negotiated with +the enemy. But he could make no impression on his soldiers, and +deserted to the Austrians. Events followed a similar course in +the Rhine valley. There also the French wore out the goodwill +at first shown to them. They summoned a convention and +obtained a vote for incorporation with France. But they were +unable to hold their ground on the approach of a Prussian army. +By April they had lost the country with the exception of Mainz, +which was invested. France thus lay open to invasion from the +east and the north. The Convention decreed a levy of 300,000 +men.</p> + +<p>About the same time began the first formidable uprising +against the Revolution, the War of La Vendée, the region lying +to the south of the lower Loire and facing the Atlantic. +Its inhabitants differed in many ways from the mass +<span class="sidenote">Rising in La Vendée.</span> +of the nation. Living far from large towns and busy +routes of commerce, they remained primitive in all their +thoughts and ways. The peasants had always been on friendly +terms with the gentry, and the agrarian changes made by the +Revolution had not been appreciated so highly as elsewhere. +The people were ardent Catholics, who venerated the nonjuring +clergy and resented the measures taken against them. But +they remained passive until the enforcement of the decree for +the levy of 300,000 men. Caring little for the Convention and +knowing nothing of events on the northern or eastern frontier, +the peasants were determined not to serve and preferred to fight +the Republic at home. When once they had taken up arms +they found gentlemen to lead and priests to exhort, and their +rebellion became Royalist and Catholic. The chiefs were drawn +from widely different classes. If Bonchamps and La Roche-jacquelin +were nobles, Stofflet was a gamekeeper and Cathelineau +a mason. As the country was favourable to guerilla warfare, and +the government could not spare regular troops from the frontiers, +the rebels were usually successful, and by the end of May had +almost expelled the Republicans from La Vendée.</p> + +<p>Danger without and within prompted the Convention to +strengthen the executive authority. That the executive and +legislative powers ought to be absolutely separate +had been an axiom throughout the Revolution. +<span class="sidenote">The Committee of Public Safety.</span> +Ministers had always been excluded from a seat in the +legislature. But the Assemblies were suspicious of +the executive and bent on absorbing the government. They +had nominated committees of their own members to control +every branch of public affairs. These committees, while reducing +the ministers to impotence, were themselves clumsy and ineffectual. +It may be said that since the first meeting of the +states-general the executive authority had been paralysed in +France. The Convention in theory maintained the separation +of powers. Even Danton had been forced to resign office when +he was elected a member. But unity of government was restored +by the formation of a central committee. In January the first +Committee of General Defence was formed of members of the +committees for the several departments of state. Too large and +too much divided for strenuous labour, it was reduced in April to +nine members and re-named the Committee of Public Safety. +It deliberated in secret and had authority over the ministers; +it was entrusted with the whole of the national defence and empowered +to use all the resources of the state, and it quickly +became the supreme power in the republic. Under it the ministers +were no more than head clerks. About the same time were +instituted the deputies on mission in the provinces, who could +overrule any local authority, and who corresponded regularly +with the Committee. France thus returned under new forms to +its traditional government: a despotic authority in Paris with +all-powerful agents in the provinces. Against disaffection the +government was armed with formidable weapons: the Committee +of General Security and the Revolutionary Tribunal. +The Committee of General Security, first established in October +1792, was several times remodelled. In September 1793 the +Convention decreed that its members should be nominated by +the Committee of Public Safety. The Committee of General +Security had unlimited powers for the prevention or discovery +of crime against the state. The Revolutionary Tribunal was +decreed on the 10th of March. It was an extraordinary Court, +destined to try all offences against the Revolution without appeal. +The jury, which received wages, voted openly, so that condemnation +was almost certain. The director of the jury or public +prosecutor was Fouquier Tinville. The first condemnation took +place on the 11th of April.</p> + +<p>Enmity between Girondin and Jacobin grew fiercer as the +perils of the Republic increased. Danton strove to unite all +partisans of the Revolution in defence of the country; but +the Girondins, detesting his character and fearing his ambition, +<span class="sidenote">Fall of the Girondins.</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>163</span> +rejected all advances. The Commune of Paris and the journalists +who were its mouthpieces, Hébert and Marat, aimed frankly +at destroying the Girondins. In April the Girondins +carried a decree that Marat should be sent before the +Revolutionary Tribunal for incendiary writings, but +his acquittal showed that a Jacobin leader was above the law. +In May they proposed that the Commune of Paris should be +dissolved, and that the <i>suppléants</i>, the persons elected to fill +vacancies occurring in the Convention, should assemble at +Bourges, where they would be safe from that violence which +might be applied to the Convention itself. Barère, who was +rising into notice by the skill with which he trimmed between +parties, opposed this motion, and carried a decree appointing a +Committee of Twelve to watch over the safety of the Convention. +Then the Commune named as commandant of the National +Guard, Hanriot, a man concerned in the September massacres. +It raised an insurrection on the 31st of May. On Barère’s proposal +the Convention stooped to dissolving the Committee of +Twelve. The Commune, which had hoped for the arrest of the +Girondin leaders, was not satisfied. It undertook a new and +more formidable outbreak on the 2nd of June. Enclosed by +Hanriot’s troops and thoroughly cowed, the Convention decreed +the arrest of the Committee of Twelve and of twenty-two +principal Girondins. They were put under confinement in their +own houses. Thus the Jacobins became all-powerful.</p> + +<p>A tremor of revolt ran through the cities of the south which +chafed under the despotism of the Parisian mob. These cities +had their own grievances. The Jacobin clubs menaced +the lives and properties of all who were guilty of wealth +<span class="sidenote">Revolt of the provinces.</span> +or of moderate opinions, while the representatives on +mission deposed the municipal authorities and placed +their own creatures in power. At the end of April the citizens of +Marseilles closed the Jacobin club, put its chiefs on their trial +and drove out the representatives on mission. In May Lyons +rose. The Jacobin municipality was overturned, and Challier, +their fiercest demagogue, was arrested. In June the citizens of +Bordeaux declared that they would not acknowledge the +authority of the Convention until the imprisoned deputies +were set free. In July Toulon rebelled. But in the north +the appeals of such Girondins as escaped from Paris were of no +avail. Even the southern uprising proved far less dangerous +than might have been expected. The peasants, who had +gained more by the Revolution than any other class, held +aloof from the citizens. The citizens lacked the qualities +necessary for the successful conduct of civil war. Bordeaux +surrendered almost without waiting to be summoned. Marseilles +was taken in August and treated with great cruelty. Lyons, +where the Royalists were strong, defended itself with courage, +for the trial and execution of Challier made the townsmen +hopeless of pardon. Toulon, also largely Royalist, invited the +English and Spanish admirals, Hood and Langara, who occupied +the port and garrisoned the town. At the same time the Vendean +War continued formidable. In June the insurgents took the important +town of Saumur, although they failed in an attempt upon +Nantes. At the end of July the Republicans were still unable +to make any impression upon the revolted territory.</p> + +<p>Thus in the summer of 1793 France seemed to be falling to +pieces. It was saved by the imbecility and disunion of the +hostile powers. In the north the French army after +the treason of Dumouriez could only attempt to cover +<span class="sidenote">Disunion of the allied powers.</span> +the frontier. The Austrians were joined by British, +Dutch and Prussian forces. Had the Allies pushed +straight upon Paris, they might have ended the war. But the +desire of each ally to make conquests on his own account led +them to spend time and strength in sieges. When Condé and +Valenciennes had been taken, the British went off to assail +Dunkirk and the Prussians retired into Luxemburg. In the east +the Prussians and Austrians took Mainz at the end of July, +allowing the garrison to depart on condition of not serving +against the Allies for a year. Then they invaded Alsace, but their +mutual jealousy prevented them from going farther. Thus the +summer passed away without any decisive achievement of the +coalition. Meanwhile the Committee of Public Safety, inspired +by Danton, strove to rebuild the French administrative system. +In July the Committee was renewed and Danton fell out; but +soon afterwards it was reinforced by two officers, Carnot, who +undertook the organization of the army, and Prieur of the +Côte d’Or, who undertook its equipment. Administrators of the +first rank, these men renovated the warlike power of France, and +enabled her to deal those crushing blows which broke up the +coalition.</p> + +<p>The Royalist and Girondin insurrections and the critical +aspect of the war favoured the establishment of what is known +as the reign of terror. Terrorism had prevailed more +or less since the beginning of the Revolution, but it was +<span class="sidenote">The reign of terror.</span> +the work of those who desired to rule, not of the +nominal rulers. It had been lawless and rebellious. It ended by +becoming legal and official. While Danton kept power Terrorism +remained imperfect, for Danton, although unscrupulous, did not +love cruelty and kept in view a return to normal government. +But soon after Danton had ceased to be a member of the Committee +of Public Safety Robespierre was elected, and now became +the most powerful man in France. Robespierre was an acrid +fanatic, and unlike Danton, who only cared to secure the practical +results of the Revolution, he had a moral and religious ideal +which he intended to force on the nation. All who rejected his +ideal were corrupt; all who resented his ascendancy were +traitors. The death of Marat, who was stabbed by Charlotte +Corday (<i>q.v.</i>) to avenge the Girondins, gave yet another pretext +for terrible measures of repression. In Paris the armed ruffians +who had long preyed upon respectable citizens were organized +as a revolutionary army, and other revolutionary armies were +established in the provinces. Two new laws placed almost +everybody at the mercy of the government. The Law of the +Maximum, passed on the 17th of September, fixed the price of +food and made it capital to ask for more. The Law of Suspects, +passed at the same time, declared suspect every person who was +of noble birth, or had held office before the Revolution, or had any +connexion with an <i>émigré</i>, or could not produce a card of <i>civisme</i> +granted by the local authority, which had full discretion to refuse. +Any suspect might be arrested and imprisoned until the peace +or sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal. An earlier law had +established in every commune an elective committee of surveillance. +These bodies, better known as revolutionary committees, +were charged with the enforcement of the Law of Suspects. +On the 10th of October the new constitution was suspended +and the government declared revolutionary until the peace.</p> + +<p>The spirit of those in power was shown by the massacres +which followed on the surrender of Lyons in that month. In +Paris the slaughter of distinguished victims began with +the trial of Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined on +<span class="sidenote">Execution of the queen.</span> +the 16th. Twenty-one Girondin deputies were next +brought to the bar and, with the exception of Valazé +who stabbed himself, were beheaded on the last day of October, +Madame Roland and other Girondins of note suffered later. In +November the duke of Orleans, who had styled himself Philippe +Égalité, had sat in the Convention, and had voted for the king’s +death, went to the scaffold. Bailly, Barnave and many others of +note followed before the end of the year. As the bloody work +went on the pretence of trial became more and more hollow, +the chance of acquittal fainter and fainter. The Revolutionary +Tribunal was a mere instrument of state. Knowing the slight +foundation of its power the government deliberately sought to +destroy all whose birth, political connexions or past career +might mark them out as leaders of opposition. At the same time +it took care to show that none was so obscure or so impotent as to +be safe when its policy was to destroy.</p> + +<p>The disastrous effects of the Terror were heightened by the +financial mismanagement of the Jacobins. Assignats were issued +with such reckless profusion that the total for the three years of +the Convention has been estimated at 7250 millions of francs. +Enormous depreciation ensued and, although penalties rising +to death itself were denounced against all who should refuse +to take them at par, they fell to little more than 1% of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>164</span> +nominal value. What were known as revolutionary taxes were +imposed at discretion by the representatives on mission and the +local authorities. A forced loan of 1000 millions was exacted from +those citizens who were reputed to be prosperous. Immense +supplies of all kinds were requisitioned for the armies, and were +sometimes allowed to rot unused. Anarchy and state interference +having combined to check the trade in necessaries, the government +undertook to feed the people, and spent huge sums, +especially on bread for the starving inhabitants of Paris. As +no regular budget was attempted, as accounts were not kept, +and as audit was unknown, the opportunities for fraud and +embezzlement were endless. Even when due allowance has been +made for the financial disorder which the Convention inherited +from previous assemblies, and for the war which it had to wage +against a formidable alliance, it cannot be acquitted of reckless +and wasteful maladministration.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the disorder of the time, the mass of new +laws produced by the Convention was extraordinary. A new +system of weights and measures, a new currency, a +new chronological era (that of the Republic), and a new +<span class="sidenote">Revolutionary legislation. The new calendar.</span> +calendar were introduced (see the section <i>Republican +Calendar</i> below). A new and elaborate system of +education was decreed. Two drafts of a complete +civil code were made and, although neither was enacted, +particular changes of great moment were decreed. Many of the +new laws were stamped with the passions of the time. Such +were the laws which suppressed all the remaining bodies corporate, +even the academies, and which extinguished all manorial +rights without any indemnity to the owners. Such too were the +laws which took away the power of testation, placed natural +children upon an absolute equality with legitimate, and gave a +boundless freedom of divorce. It would be absurd, however, to +dismiss all the legislative work of the Convention as merely +partisan or eccentric. Much of it was enlightened and skilful, +the product of the best minds in the assembly. To compete for +power or even to express an opinion on public affairs was dangerous, +and wholly to refrain from attendance might be construed +as disaffection. Able men who wished to be useful without +hazarding their lives took refuge in the committees where new +laws were drafted and discussed. The result of their labours +was often decreed as a matter of course. Whether the decree +would be carried into effect was always uncertain.</p> + +<p>The ruling faction was still divided against itself. The +Commune of Paris, which had overthrown the Girondins, was +jealous of the Committee of Public Safety, which meant to be +supreme. Robespierre, the leading member of the committee, +abhorred the chiefs of the Commune, not merely because they +conflicted with his ambition but from difference of character. +He was orderly and temperate, they were gross and debauched; +he was a deist, they were atheists. In November the Commune +fitted up Notre Dame as a temple of Reason, selected an opera +girl to impersonate the goddess, and with profane ceremony +installed her in the choir. All the churches in Paris were closed. +Danton, when he felt power slipping from his hands, had retired +from public business to his native town of Arcis-sur-Aube. When +he became aware of the feud between Robespierre and the +Commune, he conceived the hope of limiting the Terror and +guiding the Revolution into a sane course. He returned to +Paris and joined with Robespierre in carrying the law of 14 +Frimaire (December 4), which gave the Committee of Public +Safety absolute control over all municipal authorities. He became +the advocate of mercy, and his friend Camille Desmoulins +pleaded for the same cause in the <i>Vieux Cordelier</i>. Then the +<span class="sidenote">Overthrow of the Paris Commune. Fall of the Dantonists.</span> +oppressed nation took courage and began to demand +pardon for the innocent and even justice upon +murderers. A sharp contest ensued between the +Dantonists and the Commune, Robespierre inclining +now to this side, now to that, for he was really a friend +to neither. His friend St Just, a younger and fiercer +man, resolved to destroy both. Hébert and his +followers in despair planned a new insurrection, but they were +deserted by Hanriot, their military chief. Their doom was thus +fixed. Twenty leaders of the Commune were arrested on the +17th of March 1794 and guillotined a week later. It was then +Danton’s turn. He had several warnings, but either through +over-confidence or weariness of life he scorned to fly. On the +30th he was arrested along with his friends Desmoulins, Delacroix, +Philippeaux and Westermann. St Just read to the +Convention a report on their case pre-eminent even in that day +for its shameless disregard of truth, nay, of plausibility. Before +the Revolutionary Tribunal Danton defended himself with such +energy that St Just took means to have him silenced. Danton +and his friends were executed on the 5th of April.</p> + +<p>For a moment the conflict of parties seemed at an end. None +could presume to challenge the authority of the Committee of +Public Safety, and in the committee none disputed the +leadership of Robespierre. Robespierre was at last +<span class="sidenote">Supremacy of Robespierre.</span> +free to establish the republic of virtue. On the 7th +of May he persuaded the Convention to decree that the +French people acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being +and the immortality of the soul. On the 4th of June he was +elected president of the Convention, and from that time forward +he appeared to be dictator of France. On the 8th the festival +of the Supreme Being was solemnized, Robespierre acting as +pontiff amid the outward deference and secret jeers of his colleagues. +But Robespierre knew what a gulf parted him from +almost all his countrymen. He knew that he could be safe only +by keeping power and powerful only by making the Terror more +stringent. Two days after the festival his friend Couthon +presented the crowning law of the Terror, known as the Law +of 22 Prairial. As the Revolutionary Tribunal was said to be +paralysed by forms and delays, this law abolished the defence of +prisoners by counsel and the examination of witnesses. Thenceforward +the impressions of judges and jurors were to decide the +fate of the accused. For all offences the penalty was to be death. +The leave of the Convention was no longer required for the arrest +of a member. In spite of some murmurs even this law was +adopted. Its effect was fearful. The Revolutionary Tribunal +had hitherto pronounced 1200 death sentences. In the next +six weeks it pronounced 1400. With Robespierre’s approval +St Just sketched at this time the plan of an ideal society in which +every man should have just enough land to maintain him; in +which domestic life should be regulated by law and all children +over seven years should be educated by the state. Pending +this regeneration of society St Just advised the rule of a dictator.</p> + +<p>The growing ferocity of the Terror appeared more hideous as the +dangers threatening the government receded. The surrender of +Toulon in December 1793 closed the south of France to +foreign enemies. The war in La Vendée turned against +<span class="sidenote">The Revolutionary War. Republican successes.</span> +the insurgents from the time when the veteran garrison +of Mainz came to reinforce the Republican army. +After a severe defeat at Cholet on the 16th of October +the Royalists determined to cross the Loire and raise +Brittany and Anjou, where the Chouans, or Royalist partisans, +were already stirring. They failed in an attempt on the little +seaport of Granville and in another upon Angers. In December +they were defeated with immense loss at Le Mans and at Savenay. +The rebellion would probably have died out but for the measures +of the new Republican general Turreau, who wasted La Vendée so +horribly with his “infernal columns” that he drove the peasants +to take up arms once more. Yet Turreau’s crimes were almost +surpassed by Carrier, the representative on mission at Nantes, +who, finding the guillotine too slow in the destruction of his +prisoners, adopted the plan of drowning them wholesale. In +the autumn of 1793 the war against the coalition took a turn +favourable to France. The energy of Danton, the organizing +skill of Carnot, and the high spirit of the French nation, resolute +at all costs to avoid dismemberment, had well employed the +respite given by the sluggishness of the Allies. In Flanders +the English were defeated at Hondschoote (September 8) and +the Austrians at Wattignies (October 15). In the east Hoche +routed the Austrians at Weissenburg and forced them to recross +the Rhine before the end of 1793. The summer of 1794 saw France +victorious on all her frontiers. Jourdan won the battle of Fleurus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>165</span> +(June 25), which decided the fate of the Belgian provinces. +The Prussians were driven out of the eastern departments. +Against the Spaniards and the Sardinians the French were also +successful.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances government by terror could not +endure. Robespierre was not a man of action; he knew not +how to form or lead a party; he lived not with his fellows but +with his own thoughts and ambitions. He was hated and feared +by most of the oligarchy. They laughed at his religion, resented +his puritanism, and felt themselves in daily peril. His only +loyal friends in the Committee of Public Safety, Couthon and St +Just, were themselves unpopular. Robespierre professed consideration +for the deputies of the Plain, who were glad to buy +safety by conforming to his will; but he could not reckon on +their help in time of danger. By degrees a coalition against +Robespierre was formed in the Mountain. It included old +followers of Danton like Taillen, independent Jacobins like +Cambon, some of the worst Terrorists like Fouché, and such a +consummate time-server as Barère. In the course of July its +influence began to be felt. When St Just proposed Robespierre +to the committees as dictator, he found no response. On the +8th Thermidor (26th of July) Robespierre addressed the Convention, +deploring the invectives against himself and the Revolutionary +Tribunal and demanding the purification of the committees +and the punishment of traitors. His enemies took the +speech as a declaration of war and thwarted a proposal that it +should be circulated in the departments. Robespierre felt his +ascendancy totter. He repeated his speech with more success to +the Jacobin Club. His friends determined to strike, and Hanriot +ordered the National Guards to hold themselves in readiness. +Robespierre’s enemies called on the Committee of Public Safety +<span class="sidenote">Fall of Robespierre. The 9th Thermidor.</span> +to arrest the traitors, but the committee was divided. +On the morning of the 9th Thermidor St Just was beginning +to speak in the Convention when Tallien cut him +short. Robespierre and all who tried to speak in his +behalf were shouted down. The Plain was deaf to Robespierre’s +appeal. Finally the Convention decreed the arrest of +Robespierre, of his brother Augustin, of Couthon and of St Just. +But the Commune and the Jacobin Club were on the alert. They +sounded the tocsin, mustered their partisans, and released the +prisoners. The Convention outlawed Robespierre and his friends +and sent out commissioners to rally the citizens. It named Barras, +a deputy who had served in the royal army, to lead its forces. +Had Robespierre possessed Danton’s energy, the result might +have been doubtful. He did nothing himself and benumbed +his followers. Without an effort Barras captured the Hôtel de +Ville. Robespierre, whose jaw had been shattered by a pistol +shot, was left in agony for the night. On the next morning he +was beheaded along with his brother, Couthon, St Just, Hanriot +and seventeen more of his adherents. On the day after seventy-one +members of the Commune followed them to the scaffold. +Such was the revolution of the 9th Thermidor (27th of July +1794) which ended the Reign of Terror.</p> + +<p>In a period of fifteen months, it has been calculated, about +17,000 persons had been executed in France under form of law. +The number of those who were shot, drowned or otherwise +massacred without the pretence of a trial can never be accurately +known, but must be reckoned far greater. The number of persons +arrested and imprisoned reached hundreds of thousands, of whom +many died in their crowded and filthy jails. The names on the +list of <i>émigrés</i> at the close of the Terror were about 150,000. +Of these a small proportion had borne arms against their country. +The rest were either harmless fugitives from destruction or had +never quitted France and had been placed on the list simply in +order that they might incur the penalties of emigration. Every +one of this multitude was liable to instant death if found in +French territory. Their relatives were subjected to various +pains and penalties. All the property of those condemned to +death and of <i>émigrés</i> was confiscated. The carnage of the Terror +spread far beyond the clergy and the nobility, beyond even the +middle class, for peasants and artisans were among the victims. +It spread far beyond those who could conspire or rebel, for +bedridden old men and women and young boys and girls were +often sacrificed. It made most havoc in the flower of the nation, +since every kind of eminence marked men for death. By imbuing +Frenchmen with such a mutual hatred as nothing but the arm +of despotic power could control the Reign of Terror rendered +political liberty impossible for many years. The rule of the +Terrorists made inevitable the reign of Napoleon.</p> + +<p>The fall of Robespierre had consequences unforeseen by his +destroyers. Long kept mute by fear, the mass of the nation +found a voice and demanded a total change of government. +When once the reaction against Jacobin +<span class="sidenote">Reaction after the Terror.</span> +tyranny had begun, it was impossible to halt. Great +numbers of prisoners were set at liberty. The Commune +of Paris was abolished and the office of commandant +of the National Guard was suppressed. The Revolutionary +Tribunal was reorganized, and thenceforwards condemnations +were rare. The Committees of Public Safety and General +Security were remodelled, in virtue of a law that one-fourth +of their number should retire at the end of every month and not +be re-eligible until another month had elapsed. Somewhat +later the Convention declared itself to be the only centre of +authority, and executive business was parcelled out among +sixteen committees. Most of the representatives on mission +were recalled, and many office-holders were displaced. The +trial of 130 prisoners sent up from Nantes led to so many terrible +disclosures that public feeling turned still more fiercely against +the Jacobins; Carrier himself was condemned and executed; +and in November the Jacobin Club was closed. In December +73 members of the Convention who had been imprisoned for +protesting against the violence done to the Girondins on the +2nd of June 1793 were allowed to resume their seats, and gave +a decisive majority to the anti-Jacobins. Soon afterwards +the law of the Maximum was repealed. A decree was passed +in February 1795 severing the connexion of church and state +and allowing general freedom of worship. At the beginning of +March those Girondin deputies who survived came back to their +places in the Convention.</p> + +<p>But the return to normal life after the Jacobin domination +was not destined to be smooth or continuous. Beside the +remnant of Terrorists, such as Billaud Varennes and +Collot d’Herbois, who had joined in the revolt against +<span class="sidenote">Parties in the Assembly after Thermidor.</span> +Robespierre, there were in the Convention at that time +three principal factions. The so-called Independents, +such as Barras and Merlin of Douai, who were all +Jacobins, but had stood aloof from the internal conflicts of the +party, hated Royalism as much as ever and desired the continuance +of the war which was essential to their power. The Thermidorians, +the immediate agents in Robespierre’s overthrow, such as +Tallien, had loudly professed Jacobinism, but wanted to make +their peace with the nation. They sought for an understanding +with the Girondins and Feuillants, and some went so far as +to correspond with the exiled princes. Lastly, those members +who had never been Jacobins wanted a speedy return to legal +government at home and therefore wished for peace abroad. +While bent on preserving the civil equality introduced by the +Revolution, many of these men were indifferent as between +constitutional monarchy and a republic. The government, +mainly Thermidorian, trimmed between Moderates and Independents, +and for this reason its actions were often inconsistent.</p> + +<p>The Jacobins were strong enough to carry a decree for keeping +the anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI. as a national +festival. They could count on the populace, because +work was still scarce, food was still dear, and a multitude +<span class="sidenote">Progress of the reaction.</span> +of Parisians knew not where to find bread. A +committee having recommended the indictment of +Collot d’Herbois and three other Terrorists, there ensued the +rising of the 12th Germinal (April 1). The mob forced their way +into the hall of the Convention and remained there until the +National Guards of the wealthy quarters drove them out. By +a decree of the Convention the four accused persons were deported +to Cayenne, a new mode of dealing with political offenders +almost as effective as the guillotine, while less apt to excite +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>166</span> +compassion. The National Guard was reorganized so as to +exclude the lowest class. The property of persons executed +since the 10th of March 1793 was restored to their families. +The signs of reaction daily became more unmistakable. Worshippers +crowded to the churches; the <i>émigrés</i> returned by +thousands; and Anti-Jacobin outbreaks, followed by massacre, +took place in the south. The despair of the Jacobins produced +a second rising in Paris on the 1st Prairial (May 20). Again +the mob invaded the Convention, murdered a deputy named +Féraud who attempted to shield the president, and set his head +on a pike. The ultra-Jacobin members took possession and +embodied their wishes in decrees. Again the hall was cleared +by the National Guards, but order was restored in Paris only by +employing regular troops, a new precedent in the history of the +Revolution. Paris was disarmed, and several leaders of the +insurrection were sentenced to death. The Revolutionary +Tribunal was suppressed. Toleration was proclaimed for all +priests who would declare their obedience to the laws of the state. +Royalists began to count upon the restoration of young Louis +the Dauphin, otherwise Louis XVII.; but his health had been +ruined by persevering cruelty, and he died on the 10th of June.</p> + +<p>The Thermidorian government also endeavoured to pacify +the rebels of the west. Its best adviser, Hoche, recommended +an amnesty and the assurance of religious freedom. +On these terms peace was made with the Vendéans +<span class="sidenote">Progress of the war.</span> +at La Jaunaie in February and with the Chouans at +La Mabilais in April. Some of the Vendean leaders persevered +in resistance until May, and even after their submission the peace +was ill observed, for the Royalists hearkened to the solicitations +of the princes and their advisers. In the hope of rekindling the +civil war a body of <i>émigrés</i> sailed under cover of the British +fleet and landed on the peninsula of Quiberon. They were +presently hemmed in by Hoche, and all who could not make +their escape to the ships were forced to surrender at discretion +(July 20). Nearly 700 were executed by court-martial. Yet +the spirit of revolt lingered in the west and broke out time after +time. Against the coalition the Republic was gloriously successful. +(See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">French Revolutionary Wars</a></span>.) In the summer of 1794 +the French invaded Spain at both ends of the Pyrenees, and at +the close of the year they made good their footing in Catalonia +and Navarre. By the beginning of 1795 the Rhine frontier had +been won. Against the king of Sardinia alone they accomplished +little. At sea the French had sustained a severe defeat +from Lord Howe, and several of their colonies had been taken +by the British. But Great Britain, when the Netherlands were +lost, could do little for her allies. Even before the close of 1794 +the king of Prussia retired from any active part in the war, and +on the 5th of April 1795 he concluded with France the treaty +of Basel, which recognized her occupation of the left bank of the +Rhine. The new democratic government which the French +had established in Holland purchased peace by surrendering +Dutch territory to the south of that river. A treaty of peace +between France and Spain followed in July. The grand duke +of Tuscany had been admitted to terms in February. The +coalition thus fell into ruin and France occupied a more commanding +position than in the proudest days of Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>But this greatness was unsure so long as France remained +without a stable government. A constitutional committee was +named in April. It resolved that the constitution +of 1793 was impracticable and proceeded to frame +<span class="sidenote">Constitution of the year III. The Directory.</span> +a new one. The draft was submitted to the Convention +in June. In its final shape the constitution established +a parliamentary system of two houses: a Council of +Five Hundred and a Council of Ancients, 250 in number. +Members of the Five Hundred were to be at least thirty years +of age, members of the Ancients at least forty. The system of +indirect election was maintained but universal suffrage was +abandoned. A moderate qualification was required for electors +in the first degree, a higher one for electors in the second degree.</p> + +<p>When the 750 persons necessary had been elected they were +to choose the Ancients out of their own body. A legislature was +to last for three years, and one-third of the members were to be +renewed every year. The Ancients had a suspensory veto, but +no initiative in legislation. The executive was to consist of five +directors chosen by the Ancients out of a list elected by the +Five Hundred. One director was to retire every year. The +directors were aided by ministers for the various departments +of State. These ministers did not form a council and had no +general powers of government. Provision was made for the +stringent control of all local authorities by the central government. +Since the separation of powers was still deemed axiomatic, +the directors had no voice in legislation or taxation, nor could +directors or ministers sit in either house. Freedom of religion, +freedom of the press, and freedom of labour were guaranteed. +Armed assemblies and even public meetings of political societies +were forbidden. Petitions were to be tendered only by individuals +or through the public authorities. The constitution was not, +however, allowed free play from the beginning. The Convention +was so unpopular that, if its members had retired into private life, +they would not have been safe and their work might have been +undone. It was therefore decreed that two-thirds of the first +legislature must be chosen out of the Convention.</p> + +<p>When the constitution was submitted to the primary +assemblies, most electors held aloof, 1,050,000 voting for and only +5,000 voting against it. On the 23rd of September it +was declared to be law. Then all the parties which +<span class="sidenote">Insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire.</span> +resented the limit upon freedom of election combined +to rise in Paris. The government entrusted its defence +to Barras; but its true man of action was young General +Bonaparte, who could dispose of a few thousand regular troops +and a powerful artillery. The Parisians were ill-equipped and +ill-led, and on the 13th of Vendémiaire (October 5) their insurrection +was quelled almost without loss to the victors. No +further resistance was possible. The Convention dissolved itself +on the 26th of October.</p> + +<p>The feeling of the nation was clearly shown in the elections. +Among those who had sat in the Convention the anti-Jacobins +were generally preferred. A leader of the old Right +was sometimes chosen by many departments at once. +<span class="sidenote">Balance of parties in the new legislature.</span> +Owing to this circumstance, 104 places reserved to +members of the Convention were left unfilled. When +the persons elected met they had no choice but to co-opt +the 104 from the Left of the Convention. The new one-third +were, as a rule, enemies of the Jacobins, but not of the Revolution. +Many had been members of the Constituent or of the Legislative +Assembly. When the new legislature was complete, the Jacobins +had a majority, although a weak one. After the Council of the +Ancients had been chosen by lot, it remained to name the +directors. For its own security the Left resolved that all five +must be old members of the Convention and regicides. The persons +chosen were Rewbell, Barras, La Révellière Lépeaux, Carnot +and Letourneur. Rewbell was an able, although unscrupulous, +man of action, Barras a dissolute and shameless adventurer, +La Révellière Lépeaux the chief of a new sect, the Theophilanthropists, +and therefore a bitter foe to other religions, especially +the Catholic. Severe integrity and memorable public services +raised Carnot far above his colleagues, but he was not a statesman +and was hampered by his past. Letourneur, a harmless +insignificant person, was his admirer and follower. The division +in the legislature was reproduced in the Directory. Rewbell, +Barras and La Révellière Lépeaux had a full measure of the Jacobin +spirit; Carnot and Letourneur favoured a more temperate policy.</p> + +<p>With the establishment of the Directory the Revolution might +seem closed. The nation only desired rest and the healing of its +many wounds. Those who wished to restore Louis +XVIII. and the <i>ancien régime</i> and those who would +<span class="sidenote">Character of the Directory.</span> +have renewed the Reign of Terror were insignificant +in number. The possibility of foreign interference +had vanished with the failure of the coalition. Nevertheless the +four years of the Directory were a time of arbitrary government +and chronic disquiet. The late atrocities had made confidence +or goodwill between parties impossible. The same instinct of +self-preservation which had led the members of the Convention +to claim so large a part in the new legislature and the whole of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>167</span> +the Directory impelled them to keep their predominance. As +the majority of Frenchmen wanted to be rid of them, they could +achieve their purpose only by extraordinary means. They +habitually disregarded the terms of the constitution, and, when +the elections went against them, appealed to the sword. They +resolved to prolong the war as the best expedient for prolonging +their power. They were thus driven to rely upon the armies, +which also desired war and were becoming less and less civic in +temper. Other reasons influenced them in this direction. The +finances had been so thoroughly ruined that the government +could not have met its expenses without the plunder and the +tribute of foreign countries. If peace were made, the armies +would return home and the directors would have to face the +exasperation of the rank and file who had lost their livelihood, +as well as the ambition of generals who could in a moment brush +them aside. Barras and Rewbell were notoriously corrupt +themselves and screened corruption in others. The patronage +of the directors was ill bestowed, and the general maladministration +heightened their unpopularity.</p> + +<p>The <span class="correction" title="amended from contitutional">constitutional</span> party in the legislature desired a toleration +of the nonjuring clergy, the repeal of the laws against the relatives +of the <i>émigrés</i>, and some merciful discrimination toward +the <i>émigrés</i> themselves. The directors baffled all such +<span class="sidenote">Military triumphs under the Directory. Bonaparte.</span> +endeavours. On the other hand, the socialist conspiracy +of Babeuf was easily quelled (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Babeuf, +François N.</a></span>). Little was done to improve the +finances, and the <i>assignats</i> continued to fall in value. But the +Directory was sustained by the military successes of the year +1796. Hoche again pacified La Vendée. Bonaparte’s victories in +Italy more than compensated for the reverses of Jourdan and +Moreau in Germany. The king of Sardinia made peace in May, +ceding Nice and Savoy to the Republic and consenting to receive +French garrisons in his Piedmontese fortresses. By the treaty +of San Ildefonso, concluded in August, Spain became the ally of +France. In October Naples made peace. In 1797 Bonaparte +finished the conquest of northern Italy and forced Austria to +make the treaty of Campo Formio (October), whereby the +emperor ceded Lombardy and the Austrian Netherlands to the +Republic in exchange for Venice and undertook to urge upon the +Diet the surrender of the lands beyond the Rhine. Notwithstanding +the victory of Cape St Vincent, England was brought +into such extreme peril by the mutinies in the fleet that she +offered to acknowledge the French conquest of the Netherlands +and to restore the French colonies. The selfishness of the three +directors threw away this golden opportunity. In March and +April the election of a new third of the Councils had been held. +It gave a majority to the constitutional party. Among the +directors the lot fell on Letourneur to retire, and he was succeeded +by Barthélemy, an eminent diplomatist, who allied himself with +Carnot. The political disabilities imposed upon the relatives +of <i>émigrés</i> were repealed. Priests who would declare their +submission to the Republic were restored to their rights as +citizens. It seemed likely that peace would be made and that +moderate men would gain power.</p> + +<p>Barras, Rewbell and La Révellière-Lépeaux then sought help +from the armies. Although Royalists formed but a petty +fraction of the majority, they raised the alarm that +it was seeking to restore monarchy and undo the work +<span class="sidenote">Coup d’état of the 18th Fructidor.</span> +of the Revolution. Hoche, then in command of the +army of the Sambre and Meuse, visited Paris and sent +troops. Bonaparte sent General Augereau, who executed the +<i>coup d’état</i> of the 18th Fructidor (September 4). The councils +were purged, the elections in forty-nine departments were cancelled, +and many deputies and other men of note were arrested. +Some of them, including Barthélemy, were deported to Cayenne. +Carnot made good his escape. The two vacant places in the +Directory were filled by Merlin of Douai and François of Neufchâteau. +Then the government frankly returned to Jacobin +methods. The law against the relatives of <i>émigrés</i> was reenacted, +and military tribunals were established to condemn +<i>émigrés</i> who should return to France. The nonjuring priests were +again persecuted. Many hundreds were either sent to Cayenne +or imprisoned in the hulks of Ré and Oleron. La Révellière Lépeaux +seized the opportunity to propagate his religion. Many churches +were turned into Theophilanthropic temples. The government +strained its power to secure the recognition of the <i>décadi</i> as the +day of public worship and the non-observance of Sunday. +Liberty of the press ceased. Newspapers were confiscated and +journalists were deported wholesale. It was proposed to banish +from France all members of the old <i>noblesse</i>. Although the +proposal was dropped, they were all declared to be foreigners +and were forced to obtain naturalization if they would enjoy +the rights of other citizens. A formal bankruptcy of the state, the +cancelling of two-thirds of the interest on the public debt, +crowned the misgovernment of this disastrous time.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1798 not only a new third of the legislature had +to be chosen, but the places of the members expelled by the revolution +of Fructidor had to be filled. The constitutional party had +been rendered helpless, and the mass of the electors were indifferent. +But among the Jacobins themselves there had arisen +an extreme party hostile to the directors. With the support of +many who were not Jacobins but detested the government, it +bade fair to gain a majority. Before the new deputies could +take their seats the directors forced through the councils the +law of the 22nd Floréal (May 11), annulling or perverting the +elections in thirty departments and excluding forty-eight deputies +by name. Even this <i>coup d’état</i> did not secure harmony between +the executive and the legislature. In the councils the directors +were loudly charged with corruption and misgovernment. +The retirement of François of Neufchâteau and the choice of +Treilhard as his successor made no difference in the position +of the Directory.</p> + +<p>While France was thus inwardly convulsed, its rulers were +doubly bound to husband the national strength and practise +moderation towards other states. Since December 1797 a congress +had been sitting at Rastadt to regulate the future of +Germany. That it should be brought to a successful conclusion +was of the utmost import for France. But the directors were +driven by self-interest to new adventures abroad. Bonaparte +was resolved not to sink into obscurity, and the directors were +anxious to keep him as far as possible from Paris; they therefore +sanctioned the expedition to Egypt which deprived the Republic +of its best army and most renowned captain. Coveting the +treasures of Bern, they sent Brune to invade Switzerland and +remodel its constitution; in revenge for the murder of General +Duphot, they sent Berthier to invade the papal states and erect +the Roman Republic; they occupied and virtually annexed +Piedmont. In all these countries they organized such an effective +pillage that the French became universally hateful. As the +armies were far below the strength required by the policy of unbounded +conquest and rapine, the first permanent law of conscription +was passed in the summer of 1798. The attempt to enforce +it caused a revolt of the peasants in the Belgian departments. +The priests were made responsible and some eight thousand were +condemned in a mass to deportation, although much the greater +part escaped by the goodwill of the people. Few soldiers were +obtained by the conscription, for the government was as weak +as it was tyrannical.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances Nelson’s victory of Aboukir (1st +of August), which gave the British full command of the Mediterranean +and secluded Bonaparte in Egypt, was the signal +for a second coalition. Naples, Austria, Russia and +<span class="sidenote">The second coalition.</span> +Turkey joined Great Britain against France. Ferdinand +of Naples, rashly taking the offensive before his allies +were ready, was defeated and forced to seek a refuge in Sicily. +In January 1799 the French occupied Naples and set up the +Parthenopean republic. But the consequent dispersion of their +weak forces only exposed them to greater peril. At home the +Directory was in a most critical position. In the elections of +April 1799 a large number of Jacobins gained seats. A little +later Rewbell retired. It was imperative to fill his place with a +man of ability and influence. The choice fell upon Sieyès, who +had kept aloof from office and retained not only his immeasurable +self-conceit but the respect of the public. Sieyès felt that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>168</span> +the Directory was bankrupt of reputation, and he intended to be +far more than a mere member of a board. He hoped to concentrate +power in his own hands, to bridle the Jacobins, and to remodel +the constitution. With the help of Barras he proceeded to rid +himself of the other directors. An irregularity having been +discovered in Treilhard’s election, he retired, and his place was +taken by Gohier. Merlin of Douai and La Révellière Lépeaux +were driven to resign in June. They were succeeded by Moulin +and Ducos. The three new directors were so insignificant that +they could give no trouble, but for the same reason they were of +little service.</p> + +<p>Such a government was ill fitted to cope with the dangers then +gathering round France. The directors having resolved on the +offensive in Germany, the French crossed the Rhine +early in March, but were defeated by the archduke +<span class="sidenote">French reverses. The Directory discredited.</span> +Charles at Stockach on the 25th. The congress at Rastadt, +which had sat for fifteen months without doing +anything, broke up in April and the French envoys +were murdered by Austrian hussars. In Italy the allies took the +offensive with an army partly Austrian, partly Russian under the +command of Suvárov. After defeating Moreau at Cassano on +the 27th of April, he occupied Milan and Turin. The republics +established by the French in Italy were overthrown, and the +French army retreating from Naples was defeated by Suvárov +on the Trebbia. Thus threatened with invasion on her German +and Italian frontiers, France was disabled by anarchy within. +The finances were in the last distress; the anti-religious policy +of the government kept many departments on the verge of revolt; +and commerce was almost suspended by the decay of roads and +the increase of bandits. There was no real political freedom, +yet none of the ease or security which enlightened despotism +can bestow. The Terrorists lifted their heads in the Council of +Five Hundred. A Law of Hostages, which was really a new Law +of Suspects, and a progressive income tax showed the temper of +the majority. The Jacobin Club was reopened and became +once more the focus of disorder. The Jacobin press renewed the +licence of Hébert and Marat. Never since the outbreak of +the Revolution had the public temper been so gloomy and +desponding.</p> + +<p>In this extremity Sieyès chose as minister of police the old +Terrorist Fouché, who best understood how to deal with his +brethren. Fouché closed the Jacobin Club and deported a +number of journalists. But like his predecessors Sieyès felt +that for the revolution which he meditated he must have the +help of a soldier. As his man of action he chose General Joubert, +one of the most distinguished among French officers. Joubert +was sent to restore the fortune of the war in Italy. At Novi on +the 15th of August he encountered Suvárov. He was killed +at the outset of the battle and his men were defeated. After +this disaster the French held scarcely anything south of the Alps +save Genoa. The Russian and Austrian governments then +agreed to drive the enemy out of Switzerland and to invade +France from the east. At the same time Holland was assailed +by the joint forces of Great Britain and Russia. But the second +coalition, like the first, was doomed to failure by the narrow +views and conflicting interests of its members. The invasion +of Switzerland was baffled by want of concert between Austrians +and Russians and by Masséna’s victory at Zürich on the 25th +and 26th of September. In October the British and the Russians +were forced to evacuate Holland. All immediate danger to +France was ended, but the issue of the war was still in suspense. +The directors had been forced to recall Bonaparte from Egypt. +He anticipated their order and on the 9th of October landed at +Fréjus.</p> + +<p>Dazzled by his victories in the East the public forgot that the +Egyptian expedition was ending in calamity. It received him +with an ardour which convinced Sieyès that he was +the indispensable soldier. Bonaparte was ready to act, +<span class="sidenote">Coup d’état of the 18th Brumaire.</span> +but at his own time and for his own ends. Since the +close of the Convention affairs at home and abroad +had been tending more and more surely to the establishment +of a military dictatorship. Feeling his powers equal to such an +office he only hesitated about the means of attainment. At first +he thought of becoming a director; finally he decided upon a +partnership with Sieyès. They resolved to end the actual government +by a fresh <i>coup d’état</i>. Means were to be taken for removing +the councils from Paris to St Cloud, where pressure could more +easily be applied. Then the councils would be induced to +decree a provisional government by three consuls and the +appointment of a commission to revise the constitution. The +pretext for this irregular proceeding was to be a vast Jacobin +conspiracy. Perhaps the gravest obstacles were to be expected +from the army. Of the generals, some, like Jourdan, were honest +republicans; others, like Bernadotte, believed themselves +capable of governing France. With perfect subtlety Bonaparte +worked on the feelings of all and kept his own intentions +secret.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 18th Brumaire (November 9) the Ancients, +to whom that power belonged, decreed the transference of the +councils to St Cloud. Of the directors, Sieyès and his friend +Ducos had arranged to resign; Barras was cajoled and bribed +into resigning; Gohier and Moulins, who were intractable, found +themselves imprisoned in the Luxemburg palace and helpless. +So far all had gone well. But when the councils met at St Cloud +on the following day, the majority of the Five Hundred showed +themselves bent on resistance, and even the Ancients gave +signs of wavering. When Bonaparte addressed the Ancients, +he lost his self-possession and made a deplorable figure. When +he appeared among the Five Hundred, they fell upon him with +such fury that he was hardly rescued by his officers. A motion +to outlaw him was only baffled by the audacity of the president, +his brother Lucien. At length driven to undisguised violence, he +sent in his grenadiers, who turned out the deputies. Then the +Ancients passed a decree which adjourned the Councils for three +months, appointed Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos provisional +consuls, and named the Legislative Commission. Some tractable +members of the Five Hundred were afterwards swept up and +served to give these measures the confirmation of their House. +Thus the Directory and the Councils came to their unlamented +end. A shabby compound of brute force and imposture, the 18th +Brumaire was nevertheless condoned, nay applauded, by the +French nation. Weary of revolution, men sought no more than +to be wisely and firmly governed.</p> + +<p>Although the French Revolution seemed to contemporaries +a total break in the history of France, it was really far otherwise. +Its results were momentous and durable in proportion +as they were the outcome of causes which had been +<span class="sidenote">General estimate of the Revolution.</span> +working long. In France there had been no historic +preparation for political freedom. The desire for such +freedom was in the main confined to the upper classes. During +the Revolution it was constantly baffled. No Assembly after +the states-general was freely elected and none deliberated in +freedom. After the Revolution Bonaparte established a monarchy +even more absolute than the monarchy of Louis XIV. But +the desire for uniformity, for equality and for what may be +termed civil liberty was the growth of ages, had been in many +respects nurtured by the action of the crown and its ministers, +and had become intense and general. Accordingly it determined +the principal results of the Revolution. Uniformity of laws +and institutions was enforced throughout France. The legal +privileges formerly distinguishing different classes were suppressed. +An obsolete and burthensome agrarian system was +abolished. A number of large estates belonging to the crown, the +clergy and the nobles were broken up and sold at nominal +prices to men of the middle or lower class. The new jurisprudence +encouraged the multiplication of small properties. The new +fiscal system taxed men according to their means and raised +no obstacle to commerce within the national boundaries. Every +calling and profession was made free to all French citizens, and +in the public service the principle of an open career for talent +was adopted. Religious disabilities vanished, and there was +well-nigh complete liberty of thought. It was because Napoleon +gave a practical form to these achievements of the Revolution +and ensured the public order necessary to their continuance that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>169</span> +the majority of Frenchmen endured so long the fearful sacrifices +which his policy exacted.</p> + +<p>That a revolution largely inspired by generous and humane +feeling should have issued in such havoc and such crimes is a +paradox which astounded spectators and still perplexes the +historian. Something in the cruelty of the French Revolution +may be ascribed to national character. From the time when +Burgundians and Armagnacs strove for dominion down to the +last insurrection of Paris, civil discord in France has always been +cruel. More, however, was due to the total dissolution of society +which followed the meeting of the states-general. In the course +of the Revolution we can discover no well-organized party, no +governing mind. Mirabeau had the stuff of a great statesman, +and Danton was capable of statesmanship. But these men were +not followed or obeyed save by accident or for a moment. Those +who seemed to govern were usually the sport of chance, often +the victims of their colleagues. Neither Royalists nor Feuillants +nor Girondins had the instinct of government. In the chaotic +state of France all ferocious and destructive passions found ample +scope. The same conditions explain the triumph of the Jacobins. +Devoid of wisdom and virtue in the highest sense, they at least +understood how power might be seized and kept. The Reign +of Terror was the expedient of a party which knew its weakness +and unpopularity. It was not necessary either to secure the +lasting benefits of the Revolution or to save France from dismemberment; +for nine Frenchmen out of ten were agreed on +both of these points and were ready to lay down their lives for +the national cause.</p> + +<p>In the history of the French Revolution the influence which +it exerted upon the surrounding countries demands peculiar +attention. The French professed to act upon principles of +universal authority, and from an early date they began to seek +converts outside their own limits. The effect was slight upon +England, which had already secured most of the reforms desired +by the French, and upon Spain, where the bulk of the people +were entirely submissive to church and king. But in the Netherlands, +in western Germany and in northern Italy, countries which +had attained a degree of civilization resembling that of France, +where the middle and lower classes had grievances and aspirations +not very different from those of the French, the effect was profound. +Fear of revolution at home was one of the motives +which led continental sovereigns to attack revolution in France. +Their incoherent efforts only confirmed the Jacobin supremacy. +Wherever the victorious French extended their dominion, they +remodelled institutions in the French manner. Their sway +proved so oppressive that the very classes which had welcomed +them with most fervour soon came to long for their expulsion. +But revolutionary ideas kept their charm. Under Napoleon the +essential part of the changes made by the Republic was preserved +in these countries also. Moreover the effacement of old +boundaries, the overthrow of ancestral governments, and the +invocation, however hollow, of the sovereignty of the people, +awoke national feeling which had slumbered long and prepared +the struggle for national union and independence in the 19th +century.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">France</a></span>, sections <i>History</i> and <i>Law and Institutions</i>. +For the leading figures in the Revolution see their biographies under +separate headings. Particular phases, facts, and institutions of +the period are also separately dealt with, <i>e.g.</i> <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Assignats</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Convention, +The National</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Jacobins</a></span>.</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography</span>.—The MS. authorities for the history of the +French Revolution are exceedingly copious. The largest collection +is in the Archives Nationales in Paris, but an immense number of +documents are to be found in other collections in Paris and the +provinces. The printed materials are so abundant and varied that +any brief notice of them must be imperfect.</p> + +<p>The condition of France and the state of public opinion at the +beginning of the Revolution may be studied in the printed collections +of <i>Cahiers</i>. The <i>Cahiers</i> were the statements of grievances drawn +up for the guidance of deputies to the States-General by those who +had elected them. In every <i>bailliage</i> and <i>sénéchaussée</i> each estate +drew up its own cahier and the cahiers of the Third Estate were condensed +from separate cahiers drawn up by each parish in the district. +Thus the cahiers of the Third Estate number many thousands, the +greater part of which have not yet been printed. Among the collections +printed we may mention <i>Les Élections et les cahiers de Paris +en 1789</i>, by C. L. Chassin (4 vols., Paris, 1888); <i>Cahiers de plaintes et +doléances des paroisses de la province de Maine</i>, by A. Bellée and +V. Duchemin (4 vols., Le Mans, 1881-1893); <i>Cahiers de doléances +de 1789 dans le département du Pas-de-Calais</i>, by H. Loriquet (2 vols., +Arras, 1891); <i>Cahiers des paroisses et communautés du bailliage +d’Autun</i>, by A. Charmasse (Autun, 1895). New collections are +printed from time to time. A more general collection of cahiers +than any above named is given in vols. i.-vi. of the <i>Archives parlementaires</i>. +The cahiers must not be read in a spirit of absolute faith, +as they were influenced by certain models circulated at the time of +the elections and by popular excitement, but they remain an authority +of the utmost value and a mine of information as to old France. +Reference should also be made to the works of travellers who visited +France at the outbreak of the Revolution. Among these Arthur +Young’s <i>Travels in France during the years 1787, 1788 and 1789</i> (2 +vols., Bury St Edmunds, 1792-1794) are peculiarly instructive.</p> + +<p>For the history of the Assemblies during the Revolution a main +authority is their <i>Procès verbaux</i> or Journals; those of the Constituent +Assembly in 75 vols., those of the Legislative Assembly in +16 vols.; those of the Convention in 74 vols., and those of the +Councils under the Directory in 99 vols. See also the <i>Archives parlementaires</i> +edited by J. Mavidal and E. Laurent (Paris, 1867, and +the following years); the <i>Histoire parlementaire de la Révolution</i>, +by P. J. B. Buchez and P. C. Roux (Paris, 1838), and the <i>Histoire +de la Révolution par deux amis de la liberté</i> (Paris, 1792-1803).</p> + +<p>The newspapers, of which a few have been mentioned in the text, +were numerous. They are useful chiefly as illustrating the ideas and +passions of the time, for they give comparatively little information +as to facts and that little is peculiarly inaccurate. The ablest of +the Royalist journals was Mallet du Pan’s <i>Mercure de France</i>. +Pamphlets of the Revolution period number many thousands. +Such pamphlets as Mounier’s <i>Nouvelles Observations sur les États-Généraux +de France</i> and Sieyès’s <i>Qu’est-ce que le Tiers État</i> had a +notable influence on opinion. The richest collections of Revolution +pamphlets are in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris and in the +British Museum.</p> + +<p>The contemporary memoirs, &c., already published are numerous +and fresh ones are always coming forth. A few of the best known +and most useful are, for the Constituent Assembly, the memoirs of +Bailly, of Ferrières, of Malouet. The <i>Correspondence of Mirabeau +with the Count de la Marck</i>, edited by Bacourt (3 vols., Paris, 1851), +is especially valuable. Dumont’s <i>Recollections of Mirabeau</i> and +the <i>Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris</i> give the impressions of +foreigners with peculiar advantages for observing. For the Legislative +Assembly and the Convention the memoirs of Madame +Roland, of Bertrand de Molleville, of Barbaroux, of Buzot, of Louvet, +of Dumouriez are instructive. For the Directory the memoirs of +Barras, of La Révellière Lépeaux and of Thibaudeau deserve mention. +The memoirs of Lafayette are useful. Those of Talleyrand are +singularly barren, the result, no doubt, of deliberate suppression. +The memoirs of the marquise de La Rochejacquelein are important for +the war of La Vendée. The most notable Jacobins have seldom left +memoirs, but the works of Robespierre and St Just enable us to form +a clearer conception of the authors. The correspondence of the +count of Mercy-Argenteau, the imperial ambassador, with Joseph II. +and Kaunitz, and the correspondence of Mallet du Pan with the court +of Vienna, are also instructive. But the contemporary literature of +the French Revolution requires to be read in an unusually critical +spirit. At no other historical crisis have passions been more fiercely +excited; at none have shameless disregard of truth and blind +credulity been more common.</p> + +<p>Among later works based on these original materials the first +place belongs to general histories. In French Louis Blanc’s <i>Histoire +de la Révolution</i> (12 vols., Paris, 1847-1862), and Michelet’s <i>Histoire +de la Révolution Française</i> (9 vols., Paris, 1847-1853), are the most +elaborate of the older works. Michelet’s book is marked by great +eloquence and power. In H. Taine’s <i>Origines de la France contemporaine</i> +(Paris, 1876-1894) three volumes are devoted to the Revolution. +They show exceptional talent and industry, but their value +is impaired by the spirit of system and by strong prepossessions. +F. A. M. Mignet’s <i>Histoire de la Révolution Française</i> (2 vols., Paris, +1861), short and devoid of literary charm, has the merits of learning +and judgment and is still useful. F. A. Aulard’s <i>Histoire politique +de la Révolution Française</i> (Paris, 1901) is a most valuable précis of +political history, based on deep knowledge and lucidly set forth, +although not free from bias. The volume on the Revolution in +Lavisse and Rambaud’s <i>Histoire générale de l’Europe</i> (Paris, 1896) +is the work of distinguished scholars using the latest information. +In English, general histories of the Revolution are few. Carlyle’s +famous work, published in 1837, is more of a prose epic than a +history, omitting all detail which would not heighten the imaginative +effect and tinged by all the favourite ideas of the author. Some +fifty years later H. M. Stephens published the first (1886) and second +(1892) volumes of a <i>History of the French Revolution</i>. They are +marked by solid learning and contain much information. Volume +viii. of the <i>Cambridge Modern History</i>, published in 1904, contains a +general survey of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The most notable German work is H. von Sybel’s <i>Geschichte der +Revolutionszeit</i> (5 vols., Stuttgart, 1853-1879). It is strongest in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>170</span> +those carts which relate to international affairs and foreign policy. +There is an English translation.</p> + +<p>None of the general histories of the Revolution above named is +really satisfactory. The immense mass of material has not yet been +thoroughly sifted; and the passions of that age still disturb the +judgment of the historian. More successful have been the attempts +to treat particular aspects of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>The foreign relations of France during the Revolution have been +most ably unravelled by A. Sorel in <i>L’Europe et la Révolution Française</i> +(8 vols., Paris, 1885-1904) carrying the story down to the +settlement of Vienna. Five volumes cover the years 1789-1799.</p> + +<p>The financial history of the Revolution has been traced by C. +Gomel, <i>Histoire financière de l’Assemblée Constituante</i> (2 vols., Paris, +1897), and R. Stourm, <i>Les Finances de l’Ancien Régime et de la +Révolution</i> (2 vols., Paris, 1885).</p> + +<p>The relations of Church and State are sketched in E. Pressensé’s +<i>L’Église et la Révolution Française</i> (Paris, 1889).</p> + +<p>The general legislation of the period has been discussed by Ph. +Sagnac, <i>La Législation civile de la Révolution Française</i> (Paris, 1898). +The best work upon the social life of the period is the <i>Histoire de +la société française sous la Révolution</i>, by E. and J. de Goncourt +(Paris, 1889). For military history see A. Duruy, <i>L’Armée royale +en 1789</i> (Paris, 1888); E. de Hauterive, <i>L’Armée sous la Révolution, +1789-1794</i> (Paris, 1894); A. Chuquet, <i>Les Guerres de la Révolution</i> +(Paris, 1886, &c.). See also the memoirs and biographies of the +distinguished soldiers of the Republic and Empire, too numerous +for citation here.</p> + +<p>Modern lives of the principal actors in the Revolution are numerous. +Among the most important are <i>Mémoires de Mirabeau</i>, by +L. de Montigny (Paris, 1834); <i>Les Mirabeau</i>, by L. de Loménie +(Paris, 1889-1891); H. L. de Lanzac de Laborie’s <i>Jean Joseph +Mounier</i> (Paris, 1889); B. Mallet’s <i>Mallet du Pan and the French +Revolution</i> (London, 1902); Robinet’s <i>Danton</i> (Paris, 1889); +Hamel’s <i>Histoire de Robespierre</i> (Paris, 1865-1867) and <i>Histoire de +St-Just</i> (2 vols., Brussels, 1860); A. Bigeon, <i>Sieyès</i> (Paris, 1893); +<i>Memoirs of Carnot</i>, by his son (2 vols., Paris, 1861-1864).</p> + +<p>For fuller information see M. Tourneux, <i>Les Sources bibliographiques +de l’histoire de la Révolution Française</i> (Paris, 1898, etc.), +and <i>Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution</i> (Paris, +1890, etc.).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(F. C. M.)</div> + +<p class="pt1"><i>French Republican Calendar.</i>—Among the changes made +during the Revolution was the substitution of a new calendar, +usually called the revolutionary or republican calendar, for the +prevailing Gregorian system. Something of the sort had been +suggested in 1785 by a certain Riboud, and a definite scheme +had been promulgated by Pierre Sylvain Maréchal (1750-1803) +in his <i>Almanach des honnêtes gens</i> (1788). The objects which +the advocates of a new calendar had in view were to strike a +blow at the clergy and to divorce all calculations of time from +the Christian associations with which they were loaded, in short, +to abolish the Christian year; and enthusiasts were already +speaking of “the first year of liberty” and “the first year of the +republic” when the national convention took up the matter in +1793. The business of drawing up the new calendar was entrusted +to the president of the committee of public instruction, +Charles Gilbert Romme (1750-1795), who was aided in the work +by the mathematicians Gaspard Monge and Joseph Louis +Lagrange, the poet Fabre d’Églantine and others. The result +of their labours was submitted to the convention in September; +it was accepted, and the new calendar became law on the 5th +of October 1793. The new arrangement was regarded as beginning +on the 22nd of September 1792, this day being chosen +because on it the republic was proclaimed and because it was +in this year the day of the autumnal equinox.</p> + +<p>By the new calendar the year of 365 days was divided into +twelve months of thirty days each, every month being divided +into three periods of ten days, each of which were called <i>décades</i>, +and the tenth, or last, day of each decade being a day of rest. +It was also proposed to divide the day on the decimal system, +but this arrangement was found to be highly inconvenient and +it was never put into practice. Five days of the 365 still remained +to be dealt with, and these were set aside for national +festivals and holidays and were called <i>Sans-culottides</i>. They +were to fall at the end of the year, <i>i.e.</i> on the five days between +the 17th and the 21st of September inclusive, and were called +the festivals of virtue, of genius, of labour, of opinion and of +rewards. A similar course was adopted with regard to the +extra day which occurred once in every four years, but the first +of these was to fall in the year III., <i>i.e.</i> in 1795, and not in 1796, +the leap year in the Gregorian calendar. This day was set apart +for the festival of the Revolution and was to be the last of the +<i>Sans-culottides</i>. Each period of four years was to be called a +<i>Franciade</i>.</p> + +<table class="ws f90" summary="Contents"> + +<tr><td class="tcc allb" colspan="3"><span class="sc">An II.</span><br />1793-1794.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An III.</span><br />1794-1795.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An IV.</span><br />1795-1796.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An V.</span><br />1796-1797.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An VI.</span><br />1797-1798.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An VII.</span><br />1798-1799.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An VIII.</span><br />1799-1800.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An IX.</span><br />1800-1801.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Vendémiaire</td> <td class="tcl">22 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1793</td> <td class="tcl">22 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1794</td> <td class="tcl">23 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1795</td> <td class="tcl">22 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1796</td> <td class="tcl">22 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1797</td> <td class="tcl">22 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1798</td> <td class="tcl">23 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1799</td> <td class="tcl">23 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1800</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Brumaire</td> <td class="tcl">22 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Oct.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Frimaire</td> <td class="tcl">21 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Nov.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Nivôse</td> <td class="tcl">21 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Déc.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Pluviôse</td> <td class="tcl">20 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1794</td> <td class="tcl">20 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1795</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1796</td> <td class="tcl">20 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1797</td> <td class="tcl">20 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1798</td> <td class="tcl">20 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1799</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1800</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janv.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1801</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Ventôse</td> <td class="tcl">19 Févr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Févr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Févr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Févr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Fév.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Fév.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl"> 20 Fév.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Fév.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Germinal</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">1 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Floréal</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avr.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Prairial</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Messidor</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Thermidor</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">19 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juil.</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb bb">1 Fructidor</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">18 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 <span class="f80">Sans-culottides</span></td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1794</td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1795</td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1796</td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1797</td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1798</td> <td class="tcl">17 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1799</td> <td class="tcl">18 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1800</td> <td class="tcl">18 Sept.</td> <td class="tcc rb">1801</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb bb">6    ”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcl bb">22 ”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcl bb">22 ”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +</table> + +<table class="ws f90" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tcc allb" colspan="3"><span class="sc">An X.</span><br />1801-1802.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An XI.</span><br />1802-1803.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An XII.</span><br />1803-1804.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An XIII.</span><br />1804-1805.</td> +<td class="tcc allb" colspan="2"><span class="sc">An XIV.</span><br />1805.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Vendémiaire</td> <td class="tcl">23 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1801</td> <td class="tcl">23 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1802</td> <td class="tcl">24 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1803</td> <td class="tcl">23 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1804</td> <td class="tcl">23 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1805</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Brumaire</td> <td class="tcl">23 Octobre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Octobre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">24 Octobre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Octobre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Octobre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Frimaire</td> <td class="tcl">22 Novembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Novembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Novembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Novembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Novembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Nivôse</td> <td class="tcl">22 Décembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Décembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">23 Décembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Décembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Décembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Pluviôse</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janvier</td> <td class="tcc rb">1802</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janvier</td> <td class="tcc rb">1803</td> <td class="tcl">22 Janvier</td> <td class="tcc rb">1804</td> <td class="tcl">21 Janvier</td> <td class="tcc rb">1805</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Ventôse</td> <td class="tcl">20 Février</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Février</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Février</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Février</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Germinal</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">22 Mars</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Floréal</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avril</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avril</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avril</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Avril</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Prairial</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">21 Mai</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Messidor</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juin</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Thermidor</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juillet</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juillet</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juillet</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcl">20 Juillet</td> <td class="tcc rb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb bb">1 Fructidor</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcl bb">19 Août</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">1 Sans-culottides</td> <td class="tcl">18 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1802</td> <td class="tcl">18 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1803</td> <td class="tcl">18 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1804</td> <td class="tcl">18 Septembre</td> <td class="tcc rb">1805</td> <td class="tcc rb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb bb">6    ”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcl bb">23    ”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb">”</td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td> <td class="tcc rb bb" colspan="2"> </td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Some discussion took place about the nomenclature of the +new divisions of time. Eventually this work was entrusted to +Fabre d’Églantine, who gave to each month a name taken from +some seasonal event therein. Beginning with the new year on +the 22nd of September the autumn months were <i>Vendémiaire</i>, +the month of vintage, <i>Brumaire</i>, the months of fog, and <i>Frimaire</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>171</span> +the month of frost. The winter months were <i>Nivôse</i>, the +snowy, <i>Pluviôse</i>, the rainy, and <i>Ventôse</i>, the windy month; then +followed the spring months, <i>Germinal</i>, the month of buds, +<i>Floréal</i>, the month of flowers, and <i>Prairial</i>, the month of meadows; +and lastly the summer months, <i>Messidor</i>, the month of reaping, +<i>Thermidor</i>, the month of heat, and <i>Fructidor</i>, the month of fruit. +To the days Fabre d’Églantine gave names which retained the +idea of their numerical order, calling them Primedi, Duodi, &c., +the last day of the ten, the day of rest, being named Décadi. +The new order was soon in force in France and the new method +was employed in all public documents, but it did not last many +years. In September 1805 it was decided to restore the Gregorian +calendar, and the republican one was officially discontinued +on the 1st of January 1806.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>It will easily be seen that the connecting link between the old and +the new calendars is very slight indeed and that the expression of +a date in one calendar in terms of the other is a matter of some difficulty. +A simple method of doing this, however, is afforded by the +table on the preceding page, which is taken from the article by J. +Dubourdieu in <i>La Grande Encyclopédie</i>.</p> + +<p>Thus Robespierre was executed on 10 Thermidor An II., <i>i.e.</i> the +28th of July 1794. The insurrection of 12 Germinal An III. took +place on the 1st of April 1795. The famous 18 Brumaire An VIII. +fell on the 9th of November 1799, and the <i>coup d’état</i> of 18 Fructidor +An V. on the 4th of September 1797.</p> + +<p>For a complete concordance of the Gregorian and the republican +calendars see Stokvis, <i>Manuel d’histoire</i>, tome iii. (Leiden, 1889); +also G. Villain, “Le Calendrier républicain,” in <i>La Révolution +Française</i> for 1884-1885.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(A. W. H.*)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS<a name="ar4" id="ar4"></a></span> (1792-1800), the general +name for the first part of the series of French wars which went on +continuously, except for some local and temporary cessations +of hostilities, from the declaration of war against Britain in 1792 +to the final overthrow of Napoleon in 1815. The most important +of these cessations—viz. the peace of 1801-1803—closes the +“Revolutionary” and opens the “Napoleonic” era of land +warfare, for which see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleonic Campaigns</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Peninsular +War</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Waterloo Campaign</a></span>. The naval history of the period +is divided somewhat differently; the first period, treated below, +is 1792-1799; for the second, 1799-1815, see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleonic +Campaigns</a></span>.</p> + +<p>France declared war on Austria on the 20th of April 1792. +But Prussia and other powers had allied themselves with Austria +in view of war, and it was against a coalition and not a single +power that France found herself pitted, at the moment when the +“emigration,” the ferment of the Revolution, and want of +material and of funds had thoroughly disorganized her army. +The first engagements were singularly disgraceful. Near Lille +the French soldiers fled at sight of the Austrian outposts, crying +<i>Nous sommes trahis</i>, and murdered their general (April 29). +The commanders-in-chief of the armies that were formed became +one after another “suspects”; and before a serious action had +been fought, the three armies of Rochambeau, Lafayette and +Lückner had resolved themselves into two commanded by +Dumouriez and Kellermann. Thus the disciplined soldiers of the +Allies had apparently good reason to consider the campaign +before them a military promenade. On the Rhine, a combined +army of Prussians, Austrians, Hessians and <i>émigrés</i> under the +duke of Brunswick was formed for the invasion of France, flanked +by two smaller armies on its right and left, all three being under +the supreme command of the king of Prussia. In the Netherlands +the Austrians were to besiege Lille, and in the south the Piedmontese +also took the field. The first step, taken against +Brunswick’s advice, was the issue (July 25) of a proclamation +which, couched in terms in the last degree offensive to the French +nation, generated the spirit that was afterwards to find expression +in the “armed nation” of 1793-4, and sealed the fate +of Louis XVI. The duke, who was a model sovereign in his own +principality, sympathized with the constitutional side of the +Revolution, while as a soldier he had no confidence in the success +of the enterprise. After completing its preparations in the +leisurely manner of the previous generation, his army crossed +the French frontier on the 19th of August. Longwy was easily +captured; and the Allies slowly marched on to Verdun, which +was more indefensible even than Longwy. The commandant, +Colonel Beaurepaire, shot himself in despair, and the place +surrendered on the 3rd of September. Brunswick now began his +march on Paris and approached the defiles of the Argonne. +But Dumouriez, who had been training his raw troops at +Valenciennes in constant small engagements, with the purpose +of invading Belgium, now threw himself into the Argonne by a +rapid and daring flank march, almost under the eyes of the +Prussian advanced guard, and barred the Paris road, summoning +Kellermann to his assistance from Metz. The latter moved but +slowly, and before he arrived the northern part of the line of +defence had been forced. Dumouriez, undaunted, changed front +so as to face north, with his right wing on the Argonne and his +left stretching towards Châlons, and in this position Kellermann +joined him at St Menehould on the 19th of September.</p> + +<p>Brunswick meanwhile had passed the northern defiles and had +then swung round to cut off Dumouriez from Châlons. At the +moment when the Prussian manœuvre was nearly +completed, Kellermann, commanding in Dumouriez’s +<span class="sidenote">Valmy.</span> +momentary absence, advanced his left wing and took up a position +between St Menehould and Valmy. The result was the +world-renowned Cannonade of Valmy (September 20, 1792). +Kellermann’s infantry, nearly all regulars, stood steady. The +French artillery justified its reputation as the best in Europe, +and eventually, with no more than a half-hearted infantry +attack, the duke broke off the action and retired. This trivial +engagement was the turning-point of the campaign and a landmark +in the world’s history. Ten days later, without firing +another shot, the invading army began its retreat. Dumouriez’s +pursuit was not seriously pressed; he occupied himself chiefly +with a series of subtle and curious negotiations which, with the +general advance of the French troops, brought about the complete +withdrawal of the enemy from the soil of France.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the French forces in the south had driven back +the Piedmontese and had conquered Savoy and Nice. Another +French success was the daring expedition into Germany +made by Custine from Alsace. Custine captured Mainz +<span class="sidenote">Jemappes.</span> +itself on the 21st of October and penetrated as far as Frankfurt. +In the north the Austrian siege of Lille had completely failed, +and Dumouriez now resumed his interrupted scheme for the +invasion of the Netherlands. His forward movement, made as +it was late in the season, surprised the Austrians, and he disposed +of enormously superior forces. On the 6th of November he won +the first great victory of the war at Jemappes near Mons and, this +time advancing boldly, he overran the whole country from Namur +to Antwerp within a month.</p> + +<p>Such was the prelude of what is called the “Great War” in +England and the “Épopée” in France. Before going further +it is necessary to summarize the special features of the French +army—in leadership, discipline, tactics, organization and movement—which +made these campaigns the archetype of modern +warfare.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>At the outbreak of the Revolution the French army, like other +armies in Europe, was a “voluntary” long-service army, augmented +to some extent in war by drafts of militia.</p> + +<p>One of the first problems that the Constituent Assembly took +upon itself to solve was the nationalization of this strictly royal and +professional force, and as early as October 1789 the word +“Conscription” was heard in its debates. But it was +<span class="sidenote">The French army, 1792-1796.</span> +decreed nevertheless that free enlistment alone befitted +a free people, and the regular army was left unaltered +in form. However, a National Guard came into existence side by +side with it, and the history of French army organization in the +next few years is the history of the fusion of these two elements. +The first step, as regards the regular army, was the abolition of +proprietary rights, the serial numbering of regiments throughout +the Army, and the disbandment of the <i>Maison du roi</i>. The +next was the promotion of deserving soldiers to fill the numerous +vacancies caused by the emigration. Along with these, however, +there came to the surface many incompetent leaders, favourites in +the political clubs of Paris, &c., and the old strict discipline became +impossible owing to the frequent intervention of the civil authorities +in matters affecting it, the denunciation of generals, and especially +the wild words and wild behaviour of “Volunteer” (embodied +national guard) battalions.</p> + +<p>When war came, it was soon found that the regulars had fallen +too low in numbers and that the national guard demanded too high +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>172</span> +pay, to admit of developing the expected field strength. Arms, +discipline, training alike were wanting to the new levies, and the +repulse of Brunswick was effected by manœuvring and fighting on +the old lines and chiefly with the old army. The cry of <i>La patrie +en danger</i>, after giving, at the crisis, the highest moral support to +the troops in the front, dwindled away after victory, and the French +government contented itself with the half-measures that had, +apparently, sufficed to avert the peril. More, when the armies went +into winter quarters, the Volunteers claimed leave of absence and +went home.</p> + +<p>But in the spring of 1793, confronted by a far more serious peril, +the government took strong measures. Universal liability was +asserted, and passed into law. Yet even now whole classes obtained +exemption and the right of substitution as usual forced the burden +of service on the poorer classes, so that of the 100,000 men called +on for the regular army and 200,000 for the Volunteers, only some +180,000 were actually raised. Desertion, generally regarded as the +curse of professional armies, became a conspicuous vice of the +defenders of the Republic, except at moments when a supreme crisis +called forth supreme devotion—moments which naturally were +more or less prolonged in proportion to the gravity of the situation. +Thus, while it almost disappeared in the great effort of 1793-1794, +when the armies sustained bloody reverses in distant wars of conquest, +as in 1799, it promptly rose again to an alarming height.</p> + +<p>While this unsatisfactory general levy was being made, defeats, +defections and invasion in earnest came in rapid succession, and to +deal with the almost desperate emergency, the ruthless +Committee of Public Safety sprang into existence. “The +<span class="sidenote">Universal service of the “Amalgam.”</span> +levy is to be universal. Unmarried citizens and widowers +without children of ages from 18 to 25 are to be called up +first,” and 450,000 recruits were immediately obtained by +this single act. The complete amalgamation of the regular +and volunteer units was decided upon. The white uniforms of the line +gave place to the blue of the National Guard in all arms and services. +The titles of officers were changed, and in fact every relic of the old +régime, save the inherited solidity of the old regular battalions, was +swept away. This rough combination of line and volunteers therefore—for +the “Amalgam” was not officially begun until 1794—must be +understood when we refer to the French army of Hondschoote +or of Wattignies. It contained, by reason of its universality and also +because men were better off in the army than out of it—if they stayed +at home they went in daily fear of denunciation and the guillotine—the +best elements of the French nation. To some extent at any rate +the political <i>arrivistes</i> had been weeded out, and though the informer, +here as elsewhere, struck unseen blows, the mass of the army gradually +evolved its true leaders and obeyed them. It was, therefore, an army +of individual citizen-soldiers of the best type, welded by the enemy’s +fire, and conscious of its own solidarity in the midst of the Revolutionary +chaos.</p> + +<p>After 1794 the system underwent but little radical change until +the end of the Revolutionary period. Its regiments grew in military +value month by month and attained their highest level in the great +campaign of 1796. In 1795 the French forces (now all styled +National Guard) consisted of 531,000 men, of whom 323,000 were +infantry (100 3-battalion demi-brigades), 97,000 light infantry +(30 demi-brigades), 29,000 artillery, 20,000 engineers and 59,000 +cavalry. This novel army developed novel fighting methods, +above all in the infantry. This arm had just received a new drill-book, +as the result of a prolonged controversy (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Infantry</a></span>) +between the advocates of “lines” and “columns,” and this drill-book, +while retaining the principle of the line, set controversy at rest by +admitting battalion columns of attack, and movements at the +“quick” (100-120 paces to the minute) instead of at the “slow” +march (76). On these two prescriptions, ignoring the rest, the practical +troop leaders built up the new tactics little by little, and almost unconsciously. +The process of evolution cannot be stated exactly, for +the officers learned to use and even to invent now one form, now +another, according to ground and circumstances. But the main +stream of progress is easily distinguishable.</p> + +<p>The earlier battles were fought more or less according to the drill-book, +partly in line for fire action, partly in column for the bayonet +attack. But line movements required the most accurate +drill, and what was attainable after years of practice +<span class="sidenote">Tactics.</span> +with regulars moving at the slow march was wholly impossible +for new levies moving at 120 paces to the minute. When, therefore, +the line marched off, it broke up into a shapeless swarm of individual +firers. This was the form, if form it can be called, of the tactics of +1793—“horde-tactics,” as they have quite justly been called—and +a few such experiences as that of Hondschoote sufficed to suggest the +need of a remedy. This was found in keeping as many troops as +possible out of the firing line. From 1794 onwards the latter becomes +thinner and thinner, and instead of the drill-book form, with half the +army firing in line (practically in hordes) and the other half in support +in columns, we find the rear lines becoming more and more important +and numerous, till at last the fire of the leading line (skirmishers) +becomes insignificant, and the decision rests with the bayonets +of the closed masses in rear. Indeed, the latter often used mixed +line and column formations, which enabled them not only to charge, +but to fire close-order volleys—absolutely regardless of the skirmishers +in front. In other words, the bravest and coolest marksmen were let +loose to do what damage they could, and the rest, massed in close +order, were kept under the control of their officers and only exposed +to the dissolving influence of the fight when the moment arrived to +deliver, whether by fire or by shock, the decisive blow.</p> + +<p>The cavalry underwent little change in its organization and tactics, +which remained as in the drill-books founded on Frederick’s practice. +But except in the case of the hussars, who were chiefly +<span class="sidenote">Cavalry. Artillery. Engineers.</span> +Alsatians, it was thoroughly disorganized by the emigration +or execution of the nobles who had officered it, and +for long it was incapable of facing the hostile squadrons +in the open. Still, its elements were good, it was fairly well trained, +and mounted, and not overwhelmed with national guard drafts, and +like the other arms it duly evolved and obeyed new leaders.</p> + +<p>In artillery matters this period, 1792-1796, marks an important +progress, due above all to Gribeauval (<i>q.v.</i>) and the two du Teils, +Jean Pierre (1722-1794) and Jean (1733-1820) who were Napoleon’s +instructors. The change was chiefly in organization and equipment—the +great tactical development of the arm was not to come until +the time of the <i>Grande Armée</i>—and may be summarized as the +transition from battalion guns and reserve artillery to batteries of +“horse and field.”</p> + +<p>The engineers, like the artillery, were a technical and non-noble +corps. They escaped, therefore, most of the troubles of the Revolution—indeed +the artillery and engineer officers, Napoleon and Carnot +amongst them, were conspicuous in the political regeneration of +France—and the engineers carried on with little change the traditions +of Vauban and Cormontaingne (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Fortification and Siegecraft</a></span>). +Both these corps were, after the Revolution as before it, the best in +Europe, other armies admitting their superiority and following their +precepts.</p> + +<p>In all this the army naturally outgrew its old “linear” organization. +Temporary divisions, called for by momentary necessities, +placed under selected generals and released from the detailed supervision +of the commander-in-chief, soon became, though in an irregular +and haphazard fashion, permanent organisms, and by 1796 the +divisional system had become practically universal. The next step, +as the armies became fewer and larger, was the temporary grouping +of divisions; this too in turn became permanent, and bequeathed +to the military world of to-day both the army corps and the capable, +self-reliant and enterprising subordinate generals, for whom the +old linear organization had no room.</p> + +<p>This subdivision of forces was intimately connected with the +general method of making war adopted by the “New French,” +as their enemies called them. What astonished the Allies most +of all was the number and the velocity of the Republicans. +<span class="sidenote">The starting point of modern warfare.</span> +These improvised armies had in fact nothing to +delay them. Tents were unprocurable for want of money, +untransportable for want of the enormous number of +wagons that would have been required, and also unnecessary, +for the discomfort that would have caused wholesale +desertion in professional armies was cheerfully borne by the men of +1793-1794. Supplies for armies of then unheard-of size could not +be carried in convoys, and the French soon became familiar with +“living on the country.” Thus 1793 saw the birth of the modern +system of war—rapidity of movement, full development of national +strength, bivouacs and requisitions, and force, as against cautious +manœuvring, small professional armies, tents and full rations, and +chicane. The first represented the decision-compelling spirit, the +second the spirit of risking little to gain a little. Above all, the +decision-compelling spirit was reinforced by the presence of the +emissaries of the Committee of Public Safety, the “representatives +on mission” who practically controlled the guillotine. There were +civil officials with the armies of the Allies too, but their chief function +was not to infuse desperate energy into the military operations, but +to see that the troops did not maltreat civilians. Such were the +fundamental principles of the “New French” method of warfare, +from which the warfare of to-day descends in the direct line. +But it was only after a painful period of trial and error, of waste +and misdirection, that it became possible for the French army to +have evolved Napoleon, and for Napoleon to evolve the principles and +methods of war that conformed to and profited to the utmost by +the new conditions.</p> + +<p>Those campaigns and battles of this army which are described in +detail in the present article have been selected, some on account of +their historical importance—as producing great results; others from +their military interest—as typifying and illustrating the nature of +the revolution undergone by the art of war in these heroic years.</p> +</div> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">Campaigns in the Netherlands</p> + +<p>The year 1793 opened disastrously for the Republic. As a +consequence of Jemappes and Valmy, France had taken the +offensive both in Belgium, which had been overrun by +Dumouriez’s army, and in the Rhine countries, where Custine +had preached the new gospel to the sentimental and half-discontented +Hessians and Mainzers. But the execution of +Louis XVI. raised up a host of new and determined enemies. +England, Holland, Austria, Prussia, Spain and Sardinia promptly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>173</span> +formed the First Coalition. England poured out money in profusion +to pay and equip her Allies’ land armies, and herself began +the great struggle for the command of the sea (see <i>Naval Operations</i>, +below).</p> + +<p>In the Low Countries, while Dumouriez was beginning his +proposed invasion of Holland, Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg, +the new Austrian commander on the Lower Rhine, +advanced with 42,000 men from the region of Cologne, +<span class="sidenote">Neerwinden.</span> +and drove in the various detachments that Dumouriez +had posted to cover his right. The French general thereupon +abandoned his advance into Holland, and, with what forces he +could gather, turned towards the Meuse. The two armies met +at Neerwinden (<i>q.v.</i>) on the 18th of March 1793. Dumouriez +had only a few thousand men more than his opponent, instead +of the enormous superiority he had had at Jemappes. Thus the +enveloping attack could not be repeated, and in a battle on equal +fronts the old generalship and the old armies had the advantage. +Dumouriez was thoroughly defeated, the house of cards collapsed, +and the whole of the French forces retreated in confusion to the +strong line of border fortresses, created by Louis XIV. and +Vauban.<a name="fa1a" id="fa1a" href="#ft1a"><span class="sp">1</span></a> Dumouriez, witnessing the failure of his political +schemes, declared against the Republic, and after a vain attempt +to induce his own army to follow his example, fled (April 5) into +the Austrian lines. The leaderless Republicans streamed back +to Valenciennes. There, however, they found a general. Picot +(comte de) Dampierre was a regimental officer of the old army, +who, in spite of his vanity and extravagance, possessed real +loyalty to the new order of things, and brilliant personal courage. +At the darkest hour he seized the reins without orders and without +reference to seniority, and began to reconstruct the force and +the spirit of the shattered army by wise administration and +dithyrambic proclamations. Moreover, he withdrew it well +behind Valenciennes out of reach of a second reverse. The +region of Dunkirk and Cassel, the camp of La Madeleine near +Lille, and Bouchain were made the rallying points of the various +groups, the principal army being at the last-named. But the +blow of Neerwinden had struck deep, and the army was for long +incapable of service, what with the general distrust, the misconduct +of the newer battalions, and the discontent of the old +white-coated regiments that were left ragged and shoeless to +the profit of the “patriot” corps. “Beware of giving horses +to the ‘Hussars of Liberty,’” wrote Carnot, “all these new +corps are abominable.”</p> + +<p>France was in fact defenceless, and the opportunity existed +for the military promenade to Paris that the allied statesmen had +imagined in 1792. But Coburg now ceased to be a purely +Austrian commander, for one by one allied contingents, with +instructions that varied with the political aims of the various +governments, began to arrive. Moreover, he had his own views +as to the political situation, fearing especially to be the cause of +the queen’s death as Brunswick had been of the king’s, and +negotiated for a settlement. The story of these negotiations +should be read in Chuquet’s <i>Valenciennes</i>—it gives the key to +many mysteries of the campaign and shows that though the +revolutionary spirit had already passed all understanding, +enlightened men such as Coburg and his chief-of-staff Mack +sympathized with its first efforts and thought the constitution +of 1791 a gain to humanity. “If you come to Paris you will +find 80,000 patriots ready to die,” said the French negotiators. +“The patriots could not resist the Austrian regulars,” replied +Coburg, “but I do not propose to go to Paris. I desire to see +a stable government, with a chief, king or other, with whom +we can treat.” Soon, however, these personal negotiations +<span class="sidenote">Assembly of the Allies.</span> +were stopped by the emperor, and the idea of restoring +order in France became little more than a pretext +for a general intrigue amongst the confederate powers, +each seeking to aggrandize itself at France’s expense. +“If you wish to deal with the French,” observed Dumouriez +ironically to Coburg, “talk ‘constitution.’ You may beat them +but you cannot subdue them.” And their subjugation was +becoming less and less possible as the days went on and men +talked of the partition of France as a question of the moment +like the partition of Poland—a pretension that even the émigrés +resented.</p> + +<p>Coburg’s plan of campaign was limited to the objects acceptable +to all the Allies alike. He aimed at the conquest of a first-class +fortress—Lille or Valenciennes—and chiefly for this reason. +War meant to the burgher of Germany and the Netherlands a +special form of <i>haute politique</i> with which it was neither his +business nor his inclination to meddle. He had no more compunction, +therefore, in selling his worst goods at the best price +to the army commissaries than in doing so to his ordinary +customers. It followed that, owing to the distance between +Vienna and Valenciennes, and the exorbitant prices charged by +carters and horse-owners, a mere concentration of Austrian +troops at the latter place cost as much as a campaign, and the +transport expenses rose to such a figure that Coburg’s first duty +was to find a strong place to serve as a market for the country-side +and a depot for the supplies purchased, and to have it as +near as possible to the front to save the hire of vehicles. As for +the other governments which Coburg served as best he could, +the object of the war was material concessions, and it would be +easy to negotiate for the cession of Dunkirk and Valenciennes +when the British and Austrian colours already waved there. +The Allies, therefore, instead of following up their advantage over +the French field army and driving forward on the open Paris +road, set their faces westward, intending to capture Valenciennes, +Le Quesnoy, Dunkirk and Lille one after the other.</p> + +<p>Dampierre meanwhile grew less confident as responsibility +settled upon his shoulders. Quite unable to believe that Coburg +would bury himself in a maze of rivers and fortresses +when he could scatter the French army to the winds +<span class="sidenote">Dampierre at Valenciennes.</span> +by a direct advance, he was disquieted and puzzled +by the Austrian investment of Condé. This was +followed by skirmishes around Valenciennes, so unfavourable +to the French that their officers felt it would be madness to +venture far beyond the support of the fortress guns. But the +representatives on mission ordered Dampierre, who was reorganizing +his army at Bouchain, to advance and occupy Famars +camp, east of Valenciennes, and soon afterwards, disregarding +his protests, bade him relieve Condé at all costs. His skill, +though not commensurate with his personal courage and devotion, +sufficed to give him the idea of attacking Coburg on the right +bank of the Scheldt while Clerfayt, with the corps covering the +siege of Condé, was on the left, and then to turn against Clerfayt—in +fact, to operate on interior lines—but it was far from being +adequate to the task of beating either with the disheartened +forces he commanded. On the 1st of May, while Clerfayt was +held in check by a very vigorous demonstration, Coburg’s +positions west of Quiévrain were attacked by Dampierre himself. +The French won some local successes by force of numbers and +surprise, but the Allies recovered themselves, thanks chiefly to +the address and skill of Colonel Mack, and drove the Republicans +in disorder to their entrenchments. Dampierre’s discouragement +now became desperation, and, urged on by the representatives +(who, be it said, had exposed their own lives freely enough in +the action), he attacked Clerfayt on the 8th at Raismes. The +troops fought far better in the woods and hamlets west of the +Scheldt than they had done in the plains to the east. But in +the heat of the action Dampierre, becoming again the brilliant +soldier that he had been before responsibility stifled him, risked +and lost his life in leading a storming party, and his men retired +sullenly, though this time in good order, to Valenciennes. Two +days later the French gave up the open field and retired into +Valenciennes. Dampierre’s remains were by a vote of the +Convention ordered to be deposited in the Panthéon. But he +was a “ci-devant” noble, the demagogues denounced him as a +traitor, and the only honour finally paid to the man who had +tided over the weeks of greatest danger was the placing of his +bust, in the strange company of those of Brutus and Marat, in +the chamber of deputies.</p> + +<p>Another pause followed, Coburg awaiting the British contingent +under the duke of York, and the Republicans endeavouring to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>174</span> +assimilate the reinforcements of conscripts, for the most part +“undesirables,” who now arrived. Mutiny and denunciations +augmented the confusion in the French camp. Plan of campaign +there was none, save a resolution to stay at Valenciennes in the +hope of finding an opportunity of relieving Condé and to create +diversions elsewhere by expeditions from Dunkirk, Lille and +Sedan. These of course came to nothing, and before they had +even started, Coburg, resuming the offensive, had stormed the +lines of Famars (May 24), whereupon the French army retired +to Bouchain, leaving not only Condé<a name="fa2a" id="fa2a" href="#ft2a"><span class="sp">2</span></a> but also Valenciennes to +resist as best they could. The central point of the new positions +about Bouchain was called Caesar’s Camp. Here, surrounded +by streams and marshes, the French generals thought that their +troops were secure from the rush of the dreaded Austrian cavalry, +and Mack himself shared their opinion.</p> + +<p>Custine now took command of the abjectly dispirited army, +the fourth change of command within two months. His first +task was to institute a severe discipline, and his prestige was so +great that his mere threat of death sentences for offenders produced +the desired effect. As to operations, he wished for a +concentration of all possible forces from other parts of the frontier +towards Valenciennes, even if necessary at the cost of sacrificing +his own conquest of Mainz. But after he had induced the government +to assent to this, the generals of the numerous other armies +refused to give up their troops, and on the 17th of June the idea +was abandoned in view of the growing seriousness of the Vendéan +insurrection (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Vendée</a></span>). Custine, therefore, could do no more +than continue the work of reorganization. Military operations +were few. Coburg, who had all this time succeeded in remaining +concentrated, now found himself compelled to extend leftwards +towards Flanders,<a name="fa3a" id="fa3a" href="#ft3a"><span class="sp">3</span></a> for Custine had infused some energy into the +scattered groups of the Republicans in the region of Douai, +Lille and Dunkirk—and during this respite the Paris Jacobins +sent to the guillotine both Custine and his successor La Marlière +before July was ended. Both were “ci-devant” nobles and, so +far as is ascertainable, neither was guilty of anything worse than +attempts to make his orders respected by, and himself popular +with, the soldiers. By this time, owing to the innumerable +denunciations and arrests, the confusion in the Army of the North +was at its height, and no further attempt was made either to +relieve Valenciennes and Condé, or to press forward from Lille +and Dunkirk. Condé, starved out as Coburg desired, capitulated +on the 10th of June, and the Austrians, who had done their work +as soldiers, but were filled with pity for their suffering and +distracted enemies, marched in with food for the women and +children. Valenciennes, under the energetic General Ferrand, +<span class="sidenote">Fall of Valenciennes.</span> +held out bravely until the fire of the Allies became +intolerable, and then the civil population began to +plot treachery, and to wear the Bourbon cockade in +the open street. Ferrand and the representatives +with him found themselves obliged to surrender to the duke of +York, who commanded the siege corps, on the 28th of July, +after rejecting the first draft of a capitulation sent in by the +duke and threatening to continue the defence to the bitter end. +Impossible as this was known to be—for Valenciennes seemed +to have become a royalist town—Ferrand’s soldierly bearing +carried the day, and honourable terms were arranged. The +duke even offered to assist the garrison in repressing disorder. +Shortly after this the wreck of the field army was forced to +evacuate Caesar’s Camp after an unimportant action (Aug. 7-8) +and retired on Arras. By this they gave up the direct defence +of the Paris road, but placed themselves in a “flank position” +relatively to it, and secured to themselves the resources and +reinforcements available in the region of Dunkirk-Lille. +Bouchain and Cambrai, Landrecies and Le Quesnoy, were left +to their own garrisons.</p> + +<p>With this ended the second episode of the amazing campaign +of 1793. Military operations were few and spasmodic, on the +one side because the Allied statesmen were less concerned with +the nebulous common object of restoring order in France than +with their several schemes of aggrandisement, on the other +owing to the almost incredible confusion of France under the +régime of Danton and Marat. The third episode shows little +or no change in the force and direction of the allied efforts, but +a very great change in France. Thoroughly roused by disaster +and now dominated by the furious and bloodthirsty energy of +the terrorists, the French people and armies at last set before +themselves clear and definite objects to be pursued at all costs.</p> + +<p>Jean Nicolas Houchard, the next officer appointed to command, +had been a heavy cavalry trooper in the Seven Years’ War. His +face bore the scars of wounds received at Minden, and +his bravery, his stature, his bold and fierce manner, +<span class="sidenote">Houchard.</span> +his want of education, seemed to all to betoken the ideal sans-culotte +general. But he was nevertheless incapable of leading +an army, and knowing this, carefully conformed to the advice +of his staff officers Berthelmy and Gay-Vernon, the latter of +whom, an exceptionally capable officer, had been Custine’s chief +of staff and was consequently under suspicion. At one moment, +indeed, operations had to be suspended altogether because his +papers were seized by the civil authorities, and amongst them +were all the confidential memoranda and maps required for +the business of headquarters. It was the darkest hour. The +Vendéans, the people of Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon, were in +open and hitherto successful revolt. Valenciennes had fallen +and Coburg’s hussar parties pressed forward into the Somme +valley. Again the Allies had the decision of the war in their +own hands. Coburg, indeed, was still afraid, on Marie Antoinette’s +account, of forcing the Republicans to extremities, and on +military grounds too he thought an advance on Paris hazardous. +But, hazardous or not, it would have been attempted but for +the English. The duke of York had definite orders from his +government to capture Dunkirk—at present a nest of corsairs +which interfered with the Channel trade, and in the future, it +was hoped, a second Gibraltar—and after the fall of Valenciennes +and the capture of Caesar’s Camp the English and Hanoverians +marched away, via Tournai and Ypres, to besiege the coast +fortress. Thereupon the king of Prussia in turn called off his +contingent for operations on the middle Rhine. Holland, too, +though she maintained her contingent in face of Lille (where +it covered Flanders), was not disposed to send it to join the +imperialists in an adventure in the heart of France. Coburg, +therefore, was brought to a complete standstill, and the scene +of the decision was shifted to the district between Lille and the +coast.</p> + +<p>Thither came Carnot, the engineer officer who was in charge +of military affairs In the Committee of Public Safety and is +known to history as the “Organizer of Victory.” His views of +the strategy to be pursued indicate either a purely geographical +idea of war, which does not square with his later principles and +practice, or, as is far more likely, a profound disbelief in the +capacity of the Army of the North, as it then stood, to fight a +battle, and they went no further than to recommend an inroad +into Flanders on the ground that no enemy would be encountered +there. This, however, in the event developed into an operation +of almost decisive importance, for at the moment of its inception +the duke of York was already on the march. Fighting <i>en route</i> +a very severe but successful action (Lincelles, Aug. 18) with the +French troops encamped near Lille, the Anglo-Hanoverians +entered the district—densely intersected with canals and +morasses—around Dunkirk and Bergues on the 21st and 22nd. +On the right, by way of Furnes, the British moved towards +Dunkirk and invested the east front of the weak fortress, while +on the left the Hanoverian field marshal v. Freytag moved via +Poperinghe on Bergues. The French had a chain of outposts +between Furnes and Bergues, but Freytag attacked them +resolutely, and the defenders, except a brave handful who stood +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>175</span> +to cross bayonets, fled in all directions. The east front of +Bergues was invested on the 23rd, and Freytag spread out his +<span class="sidenote">Dunkirk.</span> +forces to cover the duke of York’s attack on Dunkirk, +his right being opposite Bergues and his centre at +Bambeke, while his left covered the space between Roosbrugge +and Ypres with a cordon of posts. Houchard was in despair +at the bad conduct of his troops. But one young general, +Jourdan, anticipating Houchard’s orders, had already brought +a strong force from Lille to Cassel, whence he incessantly harried +Freytag’s posts. Carnot encouraged the garrisons of Dunkirk +and Bergues, and caused the sluices to be opened. The <i>moral</i> +of the defenders rose rapidly. Houchard prepared to bring up +every available man of the Army of the North, and only waited +to make up his mind as to the direction in which his attack should +be made. The Allies themselves recognized the extreme danger +of their position. It was cut in half by the Great Morass, stretches +of which extended even to Furnes. Neither Dunkirk nor +Bergues could be completely invested owing to the inundations, +and Freytag sent a message to King George III. to the effect +that if Dunkirk did not surrender in a few days the expedition +would be a complete failure.</p> + +<p>As for the French, they could hardly believe their good fortune. +Generals, staff officers and representatives on mission alike were +eager for a swift and crushing offensive. “’Attack’ and ‘attack +in mass’ became the shibboleth and the catch-phrase of the +camps” (Chuquet), and fortresses and armies on other parts of +the frontier were imperiously called upon to supply large drafts +for the Army of the North. Gay-Vernon’s strategical instinct +found expression in a wide-ranging movement designed to secure +the absolute annihilation of the duke of York’s forces. Beginning +with an attack on the Dutch posts north and east of Lille, the +army was then to press forward towards Furnes, the left wing +holding Freytag’s left wing in check, and the right swinging +inwards and across the line of retreat of both allied corps. At +that moment all men were daring, and the scheme was adopted +with enthusiasm. On the 28th of August, consequently, the +Dutch posts were attacked and driven away by the mobile +forces at Lille, aided by parts of the main army from Arras. +But even before they had fired their last shot the Republicans +dispersed to plunder and compromised their success. Houchard +and Gay-Vernon began to fear that their army would not emerge +successfully from the supreme test they were about to impose +on it, and from this moment the scheme of destroying the +English began to give way to the simpler and safer idea of +relieving Dunkirk. The place was so ill-equipped that after a +few days’ siege it was <i>in extremis</i>, and the political importance of +its preservation led not merely the civilian representatives, but +even Carnot, to implore Houchard to put an end to the crisis at +once. On the 30th, Cassel, instead of Ypres, was designated as +the point of concentration for the “mass of attack.” This +surprised the representatives and Carnot as much as it surprised +the subordinate generals, all of whom thought that there would +still be time to make the détour through Ypres and to cut off +the Allies’ retreat before Dunkirk fell. But Houchard and Gay-Vernon +were no longer under any illusions as to the manœuvring +power of their forces, and the government agents wisely left +them to execute their own plans. Thirty-seven thousand men +were left to watch Coburg and to secure Arras and Douai, and +the rest, 50,000 strong, assembled at Cassel. Everything was in +Houchard’s favour could he but overcome the indiscipline of his +own army. The duke of York was more dangerous in appearance +than in reality—as the result must infallibly have shown had +Houchard and Gay-Vernon possessed the courage to execute the +original plan—and Freytag’s covering army extended in a line +of disconnected posts from Bergues to Ypres.</p> + +<p>Against the left and centre of this feeble cordon 40,000 men +advanced in many columns on the 6th of September. A confused +outpost fight, in which the various assailing columns +dissolved into excited swarms, ended, long after +<span class="sidenote">Hondschoote.</span> +nightfall, in the orderly withdrawal of the various +allied posts to Hondschoote. The French generals were occupied +the whole of next day in sorting out their troops, who had not +only completely wasted their strength against mere outposts, +but had actually consumed their rations and used up their +ammunition. On the 8th, the assailants, having more or less +recovered themselves, advanced again. They found Wallmoden +(who had succeeded Freytag, disabled on the 6th) entrenched on +either side of the village of Hondschoote, the right resting on the +great morass and the left on the village of Leysele. Here was +the opportunity for the “attack in mass” that had been so freely +discussed; but Houchard was now concerned more with the +relief of Dunkirk than with the defeat of the enemy. He sent +away one division to Dunkirk, another to Bergues, and a third +towards Ypres, and left himself only some 20,000 men for the +battle. But Wallmoden had only 13,000—so great was the disproportion +between end and means in this ill-designed enterprise +against Dunkirk.</p> + +<table class="nobctr" style="clear: both;" summary="Illustration"> +<tr><td class="figcenter"><img style="width:510px; height:608px" src="images/img175.jpg" alt="" /></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl f80">Redrawn from a map in Fortescue’s <i>History of the British Army</i>, by permission +of Macmillan & Co., Ltd.</td></tr></table> + +<p class="pt2">Houchard despatched a column, guided by his staff officer +Berthelmy, to turn the Hanoverians’ left, but this column lost +its way in the dense country about Loo. The centre waited +motionless under the fire of the allied guns near Hondschoote. +In vain the representative Delbrel implored the general to order +the advance. Houchard was obstinate, and ere long the natural +result followed. Though Delbrel posted himself in front of the +line, conspicuous by his white horse and tricoloured sash and +plume, to steady the men, the bravest left the ranks and skirmished +forward from bush to bush, and the rest sought cover. +Then the allied commander ordered forward one regiment of +Hessians, and these, advancing at a ceremonial slow march, +and firing steady rolling volleys, scattered the Republicans before +them. At this crisis Houchard uttered the fatal word “retreat,” +but Delbrel overwhelmed him with reproaches and stung him into +renewed activity. He hurried away to urge forward the right +wing while Jourdan rallied the centre and led it into the fight +again. Once more Jourdan awaited in vain the order to advance, +and once more the troops broke. But at last the exasperated +Delbrel rose to the occasion. “You fear the responsibility,” +he cried to Jourdan; “well, I assume it. My authority overrides +the general’s and I give you the formal order to attack at once!” +Then, gently, as if to soften a rebuke, he continued, “You have +forced me to speak as a superior; now I will be your aide-de-camp,” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>176</span> +and at once hurried off to bring up the reserves and to +despatch cavalry to collect the fugitives. This incident, amongst +many, serves to show that the representatives on mission were +no mere savage marplots, as is too generally assumed. They +were often wise and able men, brave and fearless of responsibility +in camp and in action. Jourdan led on the reserves, and the +men fighting in the bushes on either side of the road heard their +drums to right and left. Jourdan fell wounded, but Delbrel +headed a wild irregular bayonet charge which checked the +Hanoverians, and Houchard himself, in his true place as a +cavalry leader, came up with 500 fresh sabres and flung himself +on the Allies. The Hanoverians, magnificently disciplined +troops that they were, soon re-formed after the shock, but by +this time the fugitives collected by Delbrel’s troopers, reanimated +by new hopes of victory, were returning to the front in hundreds, +and a last assault on Hondschoote met with complete success.</p> + +<p>Hondschoote was a psychological victory. Materially, it +was no more than the crushing of an obstinate rearguard at +enormous expense to the assailants, for the duke of York was able +to withdraw while there was still time. Houchard had indeed +called back the division he had sent to Bergues, and despatched +it by Loo against the enemy’s rear, but the movement was undertaken +too late in the day to be useful. The struggle was +practically a front to front battle, numbers and enthusiasm on +the one side, discipline, position and steadiness on the other. +Hence, though its strategical result was merely to compel the +duke of York to give up an enterprise that he should never +have undertaken, Hondschoote established the fact that the +“New French” were determined to win, at any cost and by sheer +weight and energy. It was long before they were able to meet +equal numbers with confidence, and still longer before they could +freely oppose a small corps to a larger one. But the nightmare +of defeats and surrenders was dispelled.</p> + +<p>The influence of Houchard on the course of the operations +had been sometimes null, sometimes detrimental, and only +occasionally good. The plan and its execution were the work +of Berthelmy and Gay-Vernon, the victory itself was Jourdan’s +and, above all, Delbrel’s. To these errors, forgiven to a victor, +Houchard added the crowning offence of failure, in the reaction +after the battle, to pursue his advantage. His enemies in Paris +became more and more powerful as the campaign continued.</p> + +<p>Having missed the great opportunity of crushing the English, +Houchard turned his attention to the Dutch posts about Menin. +As far as the Allies were concerned Hondschoote was +a mere reverse, not a disaster, and was counterbalanced +<span class="sidenote">Menin.</span> +in Coburg’s eyes by his own capture of Le Quesnoy +(Sept. 11). The proximity of the main body of the French to +Menin induced him to order Beaulieu’s corps (hitherto at +Cysoing and linking the Dutch posts with the central group) +to join the prince of Orange there, and to ask the duke +of York to do the same. But this last meant negotiation, and +before anything was settled Houchard, with the army from +Hondschoote and a contingent from Lille, had attacked the +prince at Menin and destroyed his corps (Sept. 12-13).</p> + +<p>After this engagement, which, though it was won by immensely +superior forces, was if not an important at any rate a complete +victory, Houchard went still farther inland—leaving detachments +to observe York and replacing them by troops from the various +camps as he passed along the cordon—in the hope of dealing +with Beaulieu as he had dealt with the Dutch, and even of +relieving Le Quesnoy. But in all this he failed. He had expected +to meet Beaulieu near Cysoing, but the Austrian general +had long before gone northward to assist the prince of Orange. +Thus Houchard missed his target. Worse still, one of his protective +detachments chanced to meet Beaulieu near Courtrai on the +15th, and was not only defeated but driven in rout from Menin. +Lastly, Coburg had already captured Le Quesnoy, and had also +repulsed a straggling attack of the Landrecies, Bouchain and other +French garrisons on the positions of his covering army (12th).<a name="fa4a" id="fa4a" href="#ft4a"><span class="sp">4</span></a></p> + +<p>Houchard’s offensive died away completely, and he halted +his army (45,000 strong excluding detachments) at Gaverelle, +half-way between Douai and Arras, hoping thereby to succour +Bouchain, Cambrai or Arras, whichever should prove to be +Coburg’s next objective. After standing still for several days, +a prey to all the conflicting rumours that reached his ears, he +came to the conclusion that Coburg was about to join the duke +of York in a second siege of Dunkirk, and began to close on his +left. But his conclusion was entirely wrong. The Allies were +closing on <i>their</i> left inland to attack Maubeuge. Coburg drew in +Beaulieu, and even persuaded the Dutch to assist, the duke of +York undertaking for the moment to watch the whole of the +Flanders cordon from the sea to Tournai. But this concentration +of force was merely nominal, for each contingent worked +in the interests of its own masters, and, above all, the siege +that was the object of the concentration was calculated to last +four weeks, <i>i.e.</i> gave the French four weeks unimpeded liberty +of action.</p> + +<p>Houchard was now denounced and brought captive to Paris. +Placed upon his trial, he offered a calm and reasoned defence of +his conduct, but when the intolerable word “coward” was hurled +at him by one of his judges he wept with rage, pointing to the +scars of his many wounds, and then, his spirit broken, sank into +a lethargic indifference, in which he remained to the end. He was +guillotined on the 16th of November 1793.</p> + +<p>After Houchard’s arrest, Jourdan accepted the command, +though with many misgivings, for the higher ranks were filled +by officers with even less experience than he had himself, equipment +and clothing was wanting, and, perhaps more important +still, the new levies, instead of filling up the depleted ranks of +the line, were assembled in undisciplined and half-armed hordes +at various frontier camps, under elected officers who had for the +most part never undergone the least training. The field states +showed a total of 104,000 men, of whom less than a third formed +the operative army. But an enthusiasm equal to that of +Hondschoote, and similarly demanding a plain, urgent and +recognizable objective, animated it, and although Jourdan and +Carnot (who was with him at Gaverelle, where the army had +now reassembled) began to study the general strategic situation, +the Committee brought them back to realities by ordering them +to relieve Maubeuge at all costs.</p> + +<p>The Allies disposed in all of 66,000 men around the threatened +fortress, but 26,000 of these were actually employed in the +siege, and the remainder, forming the covering army, +extended in an enormous semicircle of posts facing +<span class="sidenote">Wattignies.</span> +west, south and east. Thus the Republicans, as before, +had two men to one at the point of contact (44,000 against 21,000), +but so formidable was the discipline and steadiness of manœuvre +of the old armies that the chances were considered as no more than +“rather in favour” of the French. Not that these chances +were seriously weighed before engaging. The generals might +squander their energies in the council chamber on plans of sieges +and expeditions, but in the field they were glad enough to seize +the opportunity of a battle which they were not skilful enough +to compel. It took place on the 15th and 16th of October, and +though the allied right and centre held their ground, on their left +the plateau of Wattignies (<i>q.v.</i>), from which the battle derives its +name, was stormed on the second day, Carnot, Jourdan and the +representatives leading the columns in person. Coburg indeed +retired in unbroken order, added to which the Maubeuge garrison +had failed to co-operate with their rescuers by a sortie,<a name="fa5a" id="fa5a" href="#ft5a"><span class="sp">5</span></a> and the +duke of York had hurried up with all the men he could spare +from the Flanders cordon. But the Dutch generals refused to +advance beyond the Sambre, and Coburg broke up the siege of +Maubeuge and retired whence he had come, while Jourdan, so +far from pressing forward, was anxiously awaiting a counter-attack, +and entrenching himself with all possible energy. So +ended the episode of Wattignies, which, alike in its general +outline and in its details, gives a perfect picture of the character, +at once intense and spasmodic, of the “New French” warfare +in the days of the Terror.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>177</span></p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>To complete the story of ’93 it remains to sketch, very briefly, +the principal events on the eastern and southern frontiers of France. +These present, in the main, no special features, and all that it is +necessary to retain of them is the fact of their existence. What this +multiplication of their tasks meant to the Committee of Public Safety +and to Carnot in particular it is impossible to realize. It was not +merely on the Sambre and the Scheldt, nor against one army of +heterogeneous allies that the Republic had to fight for life, but against +Prussians and Hessians on the Rhine, Sardinians in the Alps, +Spaniards in the Pyrenees, and also (one might say, indeed, above all) +against Frenchmen in Vendée, Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon.</p> + +<p>On the Rhine, the advance of a Prussian-Hessian army, 63,000 +strong, rapidly drove back Custine from the Main into the valleys of +the Saar and the Lauter. An Austrian corps under Wurmser soon +afterwards invaded Alsace. Here, as on the northern frontier, there +was a long period of trial and error, of denunciations and indiscipline, +and of wholly trivial fighting, before the Republicans recovered +themselves. But in the end the ragged enthusiasts found their true +leader in Lazare Hoche, and, though defeated by Brunswick at +Pirmasens and Kaiserslautern, they managed to develop almost +their full strength against Wurmser in Alsace. On the 26th of December +the latter, who had already undergone a series of partial reverses, +was driven by main force from the lines of Weissenburg, after which +Hoche advanced into the Palatinate and delivered Landau, and +Pichegru moved on to recapture Mainz, which had surrendered +in July. On the Spanish frontier both sides indulged in a fruitless +war of posts in broken ground. The Italian campaign of 1793, +equally unprofitable, will be referred to below. Far more serious than +either was the insurrection of Vendée (<i>q.v.</i>) and the counter-revolution +in the south of France, the principal incidents of which were the +terrible sieges of Lyons and Toulon.</p> +</div> + +<p>For 1794 Carnot planned a general advance of all the northern +armies, that of the North (Pichegru) from Dunkirk-Cassel by +Ypres and Oudenarde on Brussels, the minor Army +of the Ardennes to Charleroi, and the Army of the +<span class="sidenote">Campaign of 1794.</span> +Moselle (Jourdan) to Liége, while between Charleroi +and Lille demonstrations were to be made against the hostile +centre. He counted upon little as regards the two armies near +the Meuse, but hoped to force on a decisive battle by the +advance of the left wing towards Ypres. Coburg, on the other +side, intended, if not forced to develop his strength on the Ypres +side, to make his main effort against the French centre about +Landrecies. This produced the siege of Landrecies, which need +not concern us, a forward movement of the French to Menin +and Courtrai which resulted in the battles of Tourcoing and +Tournai, and the campaign of Fleurus, which, almost fortuitously, +produced the long-sought decision.</p> + +<p>The first crisis was brought about by the advance of the left +wing of the Army of the North, under Souham, to Menin-Courtrai. +This advance placed Souham in the midst of the enemy’s right +wing, and at last stimulated the Allies into adopting the plan +that Mack had advocated, in season and out of season, since +before Neerwinden—that of <i>annihilating the enemy’s army</i>. +This vigorous purpose, and the leading part in its execution +played by the duke of York and the British contingent, give +these operations, to Englishmen at any rate, a living interest +which is entirely lacking in, say, the sieges of Le Quesnoy and +Landrecies. On the other side, the “New French” armies and +their leaders, without losing the energy of 1793, had emerged from +confusion and inexperience, and the powers of the new army +and the new system had begun to mature. Thus it was a fair +trial of strength between the old way and the new.</p> + +<p>In the second week of May the left wing of the Army of the +North—the centre was towards Landrecies, and the right, +fused in the Army of the Ardennes, towards Charleroi—found +itself interposed at Menin-Courtrai-Lille between two hostile +masses, the main body of the allied right wing about Tournai +and a secondary corps at Thielt. Common-sense, therefore, +dictated a converging attack for the Allies and a series of rapid +radial blows for the French. In the allied camp common-sense +had first to prevail over routine, and the emperor’s first orders +were for a raid of the Thielt corps towards Ypres, which his +advisers hoped would of itself cause the French to decamp. +But the duke of York formed a very different plan, and Feldzeugmeister +Clerfayt, in command at Thielt, agreed to co-operate. +Their proposal was to surround the French on the Lys +with their two corps, and by the 15th the emperor had decided to +use larger forces with the same object.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:516px; height:776px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img177.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p class="pt2">On that day Coburg himself, with 6000 men under Feldzeugmeister +Kinsky from the central (Landrecies) group, entered +Tournai and took up the general command, while +another reinforcement under the archduke Charles +<span class="sidenote">Mack’s “annihilation plan.”</span> +marched towards Orchies. Orders were promptly issued +for a general offensive. Clerfayt’s corps was to be +between Rousselaer and Menin on the 16th, and the next day to force +its way across the Lys at Werwick and connect with the main +army. The main army was to advance in four columns. The first +three, under the duke of York, were to move off, at daylight on the +17th, by Dottignies, Leers and Lannoy respectively to the line +Mouscron-Tourcoing-Mouveaux. The fourth and fifth under +Kinsky and the archduke Charles were to defeat the French +corps on the upper Marque, and then, leaving Lille on their left +and guaranteeing themselves by a cordon system against being +cut off from Tournai (either by the troops just defeated or by the +Lille garrison), to march rapidly forward towards Werwick, +getting touch on their right with the duke of York and on their +left with Clerfayt, and thus completing the investing circle +around Souham’s and Moreau’s isolated divisions. Speed was +enjoined on all. Picked volunteers to clear away the enemy’s +skirmishers, and pioneers to make good difficult places on the +roads, were to precede the heads of the columns. Then came +at the head of the main body the artillery with an infantry +escort. All this might have been designed by the Japanese for +the attack of some well-defined Russian position in the war of +1904. Outpost and skirmisher resistance was to be overpowered +the instant it was offered, and the attack on the closed bodies +of the enemy was to be initiated by a heavy artillery fire at the +earliest possible moment. But in 1904 the Russians stood still, +which was the last thing that the Revolutionary armies of 1794 +would or could do. Mack’s well-considered and carefully balanced +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>178</span> +combinations failed, and doubtless helped to create the legend +of his incapacity, which finds no support either in the opinion +of Coburg, the representative of the old school, or in that of +Scharnhorst, the founder of the new.</p> + +<p>Souham, who commanded in the temporary absence of Pichegru, +had formed his own plan. Finding himself with the major +part of his forces between York and Clerfayt, he had decided +to impose upon the former by means of a covering detachment, +and to fall upon Clerfayt near Rousselaer with the bulk +of his forces. This plan, based as it was on a sound calculation +of time, space, strength and endurance, merits close consideration, +for it contains more than a trace of the essential principles of +modern strategy, yet with one vital difference, that whereas, +in the present case, the factor of the enemy’s independent will +wrecked the scheme, Napoleon would have guaranteed to himself, +before and during its development, the power of executing it +in spite of the enemy. The appearance of fresh allied troops +(Kinsky) on his right front at once modified these general +arrangements. Divining Coburg’s intentions from the arrival +of the enemy near Pont-à-Marque and at Lannoy, he ordered +Bonnaud (Lille group, 27,000) to leave enough troops on the upper +Marque to amuse the enemy’s leftmost columns, and with every +man he had left beyond this absolute minimum to attack the left +flank of the columns moving towards Tourcoing, which his weak +centre (12,000 men at Tourcoing, Mouscron and Roubaix) was +to stop by frontal defence. No rôle was as yet assigned to the +principal mass (50,000 under Moreau) about Courtrai. +Vandamme’s brigade was to extend along the Lys from Menin to +Werwick and beyond, to deny as long as possible the passage to +Clerfayt.</p> + +<p>This second plan failed like the first, because the enemy’s +counter-will was not controlled. All along the line Coburg’s +advance compelled the French to fight as they were without any +redistribution. But the French were sufficiently elastic to adapt +themselves readily to unforeseen conditions, and on Coburg’s +side too the unexpected happened. When Clerfayt appeared +on the Lys above Menin, he found Werwick held. This was an +accident, for the battalion there was on its way to Menin, +and Vandamme, who had not yet received his new orders, was +still far away. But the battalion fought boldly, Clerfayt sent +for his pontoons, and ere they arrived Vandamme’s leading +troops managed to come up on the other side. Thus it was not +till 1 <span class="scs">A.M.</span> on the 18th that the first Austrian battalions passed +the Lys.</p> + +<p>On the front of the main allied group the “annihilation +plan” was crippled at the outset by the tardiness of the archduke’s +(fifth or left) column. On this the smooth working of the +whole scheme depended, for Coburg considered that he must +<i>defeat</i> Bonnaud before carrying out his intended envelopment +of the Menin-Courtrai group (the idea of “binding” the enemy +by a detachment while the main scheme proceeded had not yet +arisen). The allied general, indeed, on discovering the backwardness +of the archduke, went so far as to order all the other +columns to begin by swerving southward against Bonnaud, but +these were already too deeply committed to the original plan +to execute any new variation.</p> + +<p>The rightmost column (Hanoverians) under von dem Bussche +moved on Mouscron, overpowering the fragmentary, if energetic, +resistance of the French advanced posts. Next on the left, +Lieutenant Field Marshal Otto moved by Leers and Watrelos, +driving away a French post at Lis (near Lannoy) on his left flank, +and entered Tourcoing. But meantime a French brigade had +driven von dem Bussche away from Mouscron, so that Otto felt +compelled to keep troops at Leers and Watrelos to protect his +rear, which seriously weakened his hold on Tourcoing. The +third column, led by the duke of York, advanced from Templeuve +on Lannoy, at the same time securing its left by expelling the +French from Willems. Lannoy was stormed by the British +Guards under Sir R. Abercromby with such vigour that the +cavalry which had been sent round the village to cut off the +French retreat had no time to get into position. Beyond Lannoy, +the French resistance, still disjointed, became more obstinate as +the ground favoured it more, and the duke called up the Austrians +from Willems to turn the right of the French position at Roubaix +by way of a small valley. Once again, however, the Guards dislodged +the enemy before the turning movement had taken effect. +A third French position now appeared, at Mouvaux, and this +seemed so formidable that the duke halted to rest his now +weary men. The emperor himself, however, ordered the advance +to be resumed, and Mouvaux too was carried by Abercromby. +It was now nightfall, and the duke having attained his objective +point prepared to hold it against a counter attack.</p> + +<p>Kinsky meanwhile with the fourth column had made feints +opposite Pont-à-Tressin, and had forced the passage of the Marque +near Bouvines with his main body. But Bonnaud gave ground +so slowly that up to 4 <span class="scs">P.M.</span> Kinsky had only progressed a few +hundred paces from his crossing point. The fifth column, which +was behind time on the 16th, did not arrive at Orchies till dawn +on the 17th, and had to halt there for rest and food. Thence, +moving across country in fighting formation, the archduke +made his way to Pont-à-Marque. But he was unable to do more, +before calling a halt, than deploy his troops on the other side of +the stream.</p> + +<p>So closed the first day’s operations. The “annihilation plan” +had already undergone a serious check. The archduke and +Kinsky, instead of being ready for the second part of their task, +had scarcely completed the first, and the same could be said of +Clerfayt, while von dem Bussche had definitively failed. Only +the duke of York and Otto had done their share in the centre, +and they now stood at Tourcoing and Mouvaux isolated in the +midst of the enemy’s main body, with no hope of support from +the other columns and no more than a chance of meeting Clerfayt. +Coburg’s entire force was, without deducting losses, no more +than 53,000 for a front of 18 m., and only half of the enemy’s +available 80,000 men had as yet been engaged. Mack sent a +staff officer, at 1 <span class="scs">A.M.</span>, to implore the archduke to come up to +Lannoy at once, but the young prince was asleep and his suite +refused to wake him.</p> + +<p>Matters did not, of course, present themselves in this light at +Souham’s headquarters, where the generals met in an informal +council. The project of flinging Bonnaud’s corps against the +flank of the duke of York had not received even a beginning of +execution, and the outposts, reinforced though they were from +the main group, had everywhere been driven in. All the subordinate +leaders, moreover (except Bonnaud), sent in the most +despondent reports. “Councils of war never fight” is an old +maxim, justified in ninety-nine cases in a hundred. But this +council determined to do so, and with all possible vigour. The +scheme was practically that which Coburg’s first threat had +produced and his first brusque advance had inhibited. Vandamme +was to hold Clerfayt, the garrison of Lille and a few +outlying corps to occupy the archduke and Kinsky, and in the +centre Moreau and Bonnaud, with 40,000 effectives, were to +attack the Tourcoing-Mouvaux position in front and flank at +dawn with all possible energy.</p> + +<p>The first shots were fired on the Lys, where, it will be remembered, +Clerfayt’s infantry had effected its crossing in the +night. Vandamme, who was to defend the river, had +in the evening assembled his troops (fatigued by a +<span class="sidenote">Battle of Tourcoing.</span> +long march) near Menin instead of pushing on at once. +Thus only one of his battalions had taken part in the defence +of Werwick on the 17th, and the remainder were by this chance +massed on the flank of Clerfayt’s subsequent line of advance. +Vandamme used his advantage well. He attacked, with perhaps +12,000 men against 21,000, the head and the middle of Clerfayt’s +columns as they moved on Lincelles. Clerfayt stopped at once, +turned upon him and drove him towards Roncq and Menin. +Still, fighting in succession, rallying and fighting again, +Vandamme’s regiments managed to spin out time and to +commit Clerfayt deeper and deeper to a false direction till it was +too late in the day to influence the battle elsewhere.</p> + +<p>V. dem Bussche’s column at Dottignies, shaken by the blow +it had received the day before, did nothing, and actually retreated +to the Scheldt. On the other flank, Kinsky and the archduke +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>179</span> +Charles practically remained inactive despite repeated orders +to proceed to Lannoy, Kinsky waiting for the archduke, and the +latter using up his time and forces in elaborating a protective +cordon all around his left and rear. Both alleged that “the troops +were tired,” but there was a stronger motive. It was felt that +Belgium was about to be handed over to France as the price +of peace, and the generals did not see the force of wasting +soldiers on a lost cause. There remained the two centre columns, +Otto’s and the duke of York’s. The orders of the emperor to +the duke were that he should advance to establish communication +with Clerfayt at Lincelles. Having thus cut off the French +Courtrai group, he was to initiate a general advance to crush it, +in which all the allied columns would take part, Clerfayt, York +and Otto in front, von dem Bussche on the right flank and the +archduke and Kinsky in support. These airy schemes were +destroyed at dawn on the 18th. Macdonald’s brigade carried +Tourcoing at the first rush, though Otto’s guns and the volleys +of the infantry checked its further progress. Malbrancq’s +brigade swarmed around the duke of York’s entrenchments at +Mouvaux, while Bonnaud’s mass from the side of Lille passed +the Marque and lapped round the flanks of the British posts at +Roubaix and Lannoy. The duke had used up his reserves in +assisting Otto, and by 8 <span class="scs">A.M.</span> the positions of Roubaix, Lannoy +and Mouvaux were isolated from each other. But the Allies +fought magnificently, and by now the Republicans were in +confusion, excited to the highest pitch and therefore extremely +sensitive to waves of enthusiasm or panic; and at this moment +Clerfayt was nearing success, and Vandamme fighting almost +back to back with Malbrancq. Otto was able to retire gradually, +though with heavy losses, to Leers, before Macdonald’s left +column was able to storm Watrelos, or Daendels’ brigade, still +farther towards the Scheldt, could reach his rear. The resistance +of the Austrians gave breathing space to the English, who held +on to their positions till about 11.30, attacked again and again +by Bonnaud, and then, not without confusion, retired to join +Otto at Leers.</p> + +<p>With the retreat of the two sorely tried columns and the +suspension of Clerfayt’s attack between Lincelles and Roncq, +the battle of Tourcoing ended. It was a victory of which the +young French generals had reason to be proud. The main +attack was vigorously conducted, and the two-to-one numerical +superiority which the French possessed at the decisive point +is the best testimony at once to Souham’s generalship and to +Vandamme’s bravery. As for the Allies, those of them who took +part in the battle at all, generals and soldiers, covered themselves +with glory, but the inaction of two-thirds of Coburg’s army was +the bankruptcy declaration of the old strategical system. The +Allies lost, on this day, about 4000 killed and wounded and 1500 +prisoners besides 60 guns. The French loss, which was probably +heavier, is not known. The duke of York defeated, Souham +at once turned his attention to Clerfayt, against whom he directed +all the forces he could gather after a day’s “horde-tactics.” The +Austrian commander, however, withdrew over the river unharmed. +On the 19th he was at Rousselaer and Ingelminster, 9 +or 10 m. north of Courtrai, while Coburg’s forces assembled and +encamped in a strong position some 3 m. west and north-west of +Tournai, the Hanoverians remaining out in advance of the right +on the Espierre.</p> + +<p>Souham’s victory, thanks to his geographical position, had +merely given him air. The Allies, except for the loss of some +5500 men, were in no way worse off. The plan had failed, but +the army as a whole had not been defeated, while the troops of +the duke of York and Otto were far too well disciplined not to +take their defeat as “all in the day’s work.” Souham was still +on the Lys and midway between the two allied masses, able to +strike each in turn or liable to be crushed between them in proportion +as the opposing generals calculated time, space and +endurance accurately. Souham, therefore, as early as the 19th, +had decided that until Clerfayt had been pushed back to his +old positions near Thielt he could not deal with the main body +of the Allies on the side of Tournai, and he had left Bonnaud +to hold the latter while he concentrated most of his forces +towards Courtrai. This move had the desired effect, for Clerfayt +retired without a contest, and on the 21st of May Souham issued +his orders for an advance on Coburg’s army, which, as he knew, +had meantime been reinforced. Vandamme alone was left to +face Clerfayt, and this time with outposts far out, at Ingelminster +and Roosebeke, so as to ensure his chief, not a few hours’, but +two or three days’ freedom from interference.</p> + +<p>Pichegru now returned and took up the supreme command, +Souham remaining in charge of his own and Moreau’s divisions. +On the extreme right, from Pont-à-Tressin, only +demonstrations were to be made; the centre, between +<span class="sidenote">Battle of Tournai.</span> +Baisieux and Estaimbourg, was to be the scene of the +holding attack of Bonnaud’s command, while Souham, in considerably +greater density, delivered the decisive attack on the +allied right by St Leger and Warcoing. At Helchin a brigade was +to guard the outer flank of the assailants against a movement by +the Hanoverians and to keep open communication with Courtrai +in case of attack from the direction of Oudenarde. The details of +the allied position were insufficiently known owing to the multiplicity +of their advanced posts and the intricate and densely cultivated +nature of the ground. The battle of Tournai opened in +the early morning of the 22nd and was long and desperately +contested. The demonstration on the French extreme right +was soon recognized by the defenders to be negligible, and the +allied left wing thereupon closed on the centre. There Bonnaud +attacked with vigour, forcing back the various advanced posts, +especially on the left, where he dislodged the Allies from Nechin. +The defenders of Templeuve then fell back, and the attacking +swarms—a dissolved line of battle—fringed the brook beyond +Templeuve, on the other side of which was the Allies’ main +position, and even for a moment seized Blandain. Meanwhile +the French at Nechin, in concert with the main attack, pressed +on towards Ramegnies.</p> + +<p>Macdonald’s and other brigades had forced the Espierre +rivulet and driven von dem Bussche’s Hanoverians partly over +the Scheldt (they had a pontoon bridge), partly southward. +The main front of the Allies was defined by the brook that flows +between Templeuve and Blandain, then between Ramegnies +and Pont-à-Chin and empties into the Scheldt near the last-named +hamlet. On this front till close on nightfall a fierce battle raged. +Pichegru’s main attack was still by his left, and Pont-à-Chin was +taken and retaken by French, Austrians, British and Hanoverians +in turn. Between Blandain and Pont-à-Chin Bonnaud’s troops +more than once entered the line of defence. But the attack was +definitively broken off at nightfall and the Republicans withdrew +slowly towards Lannoy and Leers. They had for the first time +in a fiercely contested “soldier’s battle” measured their strength, +regiment for regiment, against the Allies, and failed, but by so +narrow a margin that henceforward the Army of the North +realized its own strength and solidity. The Army of the Revolution, +already superior in numbers and imbued with the decision-compelling +spirit, had at last achieved self-confidence.</p> + +<p>But the actual decision was destined by a curious process of +evolution to be given by Jourdan’s far-distant Army of the +Moselle, to which we now turn.</p> + +<p>The Army of the Moselle had been ordered to assemble a striking +force on its left wing, without prejudicing the rest of its cordon +in Lorraine, and with this striking force to operate towards +Liége and Namur. Its first movement on Arlon, in April, was +repulsed by a small Austrian corps under Beaulieu that guarded +this region. But in the beginning of May the advance was +resumed though the troops were ill-equipped and ill-fed, and +requisitions had reduced the civil population to semi-starvation +and sullen hostility. We quote Jourdan’s instructions to his +advanced guard, not merely as evidence of the trivial purpose +of the march as originally planned, but still more as an illustration +of the driving power that made the troops march at all, and of +the new method of marching and subsisting them.</p> + +<p>Its commander was “to keep in mind the purpose of cutting +the communications between Luxemburg and Namur, and was +therefore to throw out strong bodies against the enemy daily and +at different points, to parry the enemy’s movements by rapid +<span class="sidenote">Jourdan’s movement on Liége.</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>180</span> +marches, to prevent any transfer of troops to Belgium, and lastly +to seek an occasion for giving battle, for cutting off his convoys +and for seizing his magazines.” So much for the +purpose. The method of achieving it is defined as +follows. “General Hatry, in order to attain the object +of these instructions, will have with him the minimum +of wagons. He is to live at the expense of the enemy as much +as possible, and to send back into the interior of the Republic +whatever may be useful to it; he will maintain his communications +with Longwy, report every movement to me, and when +necessary to the Committee of Public Safety and to the minister +of war, maintain order and discipline, and firmly oppose every +sort of pillage.” How the last of these instructions was to be +reconciled with the rest, Hatry was not informed. In fact, it +was ignored. “I am far from believing,” wrote the representative +on mission Gillet, “that we ought to adopt the principles +of philanthropy with which we began the war.”</p> + +<p>At the moment when, on these terms, Jourdan’s advance was +resumed, the general situation east of the Scheldt was as follows: +The Allies’ centre under Coburg had captured Landrecies, and +now (May 4) lay around that place, about 65,000 strong, while +the left under Kaunitz (27,000) was somewhat north of Maubeuge, +with detachments south of the Sambre as far as the Meuse. +Beyond these again were the detachment of Beaulieu (8000) +near Arlon, and another, 9000 strong, around Trier. On the side +of the French, the Army of the Moselle (41,000 effectives) was +in cordon between Saargemünd and Longwy; the Army of the +Ardennes (22,000) between Beaumont and Givet; of the Army +of the North, the right wing (38,000) in the area Beaumont—Maubeuge +and the centre (24,000) about Guise. In the aggregate +the allied field armies numbered 139,000 men, those of the +French 203,000. Tactically the disproportion was sufficient to +give the latter the victory, if, strategically, it could be made +effective at a given time and place. But the French had mobility +as a remedy for over-extension, and though their close massing +on the extreme flanks left no more than equal forces opposite +Coburg in the centre, the latter felt unable either to go forward +or to close to one flank when on his right the storm was brewing +at Menin and Tournai, and on his left Kaunitz reported the +gathering of important masses of the French around Beaumont.</p> + +<p>Thus the initiative passed over to the French, but they missed +their opportunity, as Coburg had missed his in 1793. Pichegru’s +right was ordered to march on Mons, and his left to master the +navigation of the Scheldt so as to reduce the Allies to wagon-drawn +supplies—the latter an objective dear to the 18th-century +general; while Jourdan’s task, as we know, was to conquer the +Liége or Namur country without unduly stripping the cordon on +the Saar and the Moselle. Jourdan’s orders and original purpose +were to get Beaulieu out of his way by the usual strategical +tricks, and to march through the Ardennes as rapidly as possible, +living on what supplies he could pick up from the enemy or the +inhabitants. But he had scarcely started when Beaulieu made +his existence felt by attacking a French post at Bouillon. Thereupon +Jourdan made the active enemy, instead of Namur, his +first object.</p> + +<p>The movement of the operative portion of the Army of the +Moselle began on the 21st of May from Longwy through Arlon +towards Neufchâteau. Irregular fighting, sometimes with the +Austrians, sometimes with the bitterly hostile inhabitants, +marked its progress. Beaulieu was nowhere forced into a battle. +But fortune was on Jourdan’s side. The Austrians were a detachment +of Coburg’s army, not an independent force, and when +threatened they retired towards Ciney, drawing Jourdan after +them in the very direction in which he desired to go. On the +28th the French, after a vain detour made in the hope of forcing +Beaulieu to fight—“les esclaves n’osent pas se mesurer avec +des hommes libres,” wrote Jourdan in disgust,—reached Ciney, +and there heard that the enemy had fallen back to a strongly +entrenched position on the east bank of the Meuse near Namur. +Jourdan was preparing to attack them there, when considerations +of quite another kind intervened to change his direction, and +thereby to produce the drama of Charleroi and Fleurus—which +military historians have asserted to be the foreseen result of the +initial plan.</p> + +<p>The method of “living on the country” had failed lamentably +in the Ardennes, and Jourdan, though he had spoken of changing +his line of supply from Arlon to Carignan, then to Mézières and +so on as his march progressed, was still actually living from hand +to mouth on the convoys that arrived intermittently from his +original base. When he sought to take what he needed from the +towns on the Meuse, he infringed on the preserves of the Army +of the Ardennes.<a name="fa6a" id="fa6a" href="#ft6a"><span class="sp">6</span></a> The advance, therefore, came for the moment +to a standstill, while Beaulieu, solicitous for the safety of Charleroi—in +which fortress he had a magazine—called up the outlying +troops left behind on the Moselle to rejoin him by way of Bastogne. +At the same moment (29th) Jourdan received new orders from +Paris—(<i>a</i>) to take Dinant and Charleroi and to clear the country +between the Meuse and the Sambre, and (<i>b</i>) to attack Namur, +either by assault or by regular siege. In the latter case the bulk +of the forces were to form a covering army beyond the place, +to demonstrate towards Nivelles, Louvain and Liége, and to +serve at need as a support to the right flank of the Ardennes +Army. From these orders and from the action of the enemy +the campaign at last took a definite shape.</p> + +<p>When the Army of the Moselle passed over to the left bank +of the Meuse, it was greeted by the distant roar of guns towards +Charleroi and by news that the Army of the Ardennes, +which had already twice been defeated by Kaunitz, +<span class="sidenote">Charleroi.</span> +was for the third time deeply and unsuccessfully engaged beyond +the Sambre. The resumption of the march again complicated +the supply question, and it was only slowly that the army +advanced towards Charleroi, sweeping the country before it +and extending its right towards Namur. But at last on the 3rd +of June the concentration of parts of three armies on the Sambre +was effected. Jourdan took command of the united force (Army +of the Sambre and Meuse) with a strong hand, the 40,000 new-comers +inspired fresh courage in the beaten Ardennes troops, and +in the sudden dominating enthusiasm of the moment pillaging +and straggling almost ceased. Troops that had secured bread +shared it with less fortunate comrades, and even the Liégois +peasantry made free gifts of supplies. “We must believe,” says +the French general staff of to-day, “that the idea symbolized +by the Tricolour, around which marched ever these sansculottes, +shoeless and hungry, unchained a mysterious force that preceded +our columns and aided the achievement of military success.”</p> + +<p>Friction, however, arose between Jourdan and the generals +of the Ardennes Army, to whom the representatives thought +it well to give a separate mission. This detachment of 18,000 +men was followed by another, of 16,000, to keep touch with +Maubeuge. Deducting another 6000 for the siege of Charleroi, +when this should be made, the covering army destined to fight +the Imperialists dwindled to 55,000 out of 96,000 effectives. +Even now, we see, the objective was not primarily the enemy’s +army. The Republican leaders desired to strike out beyond +the Sambre, and as a preliminary to capture Charleroi. They +would not, however, risk the loss of their connexion with Maubeuge +before attaining the new foothold.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Tourcoing and Tournai had at last convinced +Coburg that Pichegru was his most threatening opponent, and +he had therefore, though with many misgivings, decided to +move towards his right, leaving the prince of Orange with not +more than 45,000 men on the side of Maubeuge-Charleroi-Namur.</p> + +<p>Jourdan crossed the Sambre on the 12th of June, practically +unopposed. Charleroi was rapidly invested and the covering +army extended in a semicircular position. For the fourth +time the Allies counter-attacked successfully, and after a severe +struggle the French had to abandon their positions and their +siege works and to recross the Sambre (June 16). But the army +was not beaten. On the contrary, it was only desirous of having +its revenge for a stroke of ill-fortune, due, the soldiers said, to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>181</span> +the fog and to the want of ammunition. The fierce threats of +St Just (who had joined the army) to <i>faire tomber les têtes</i> +if more energy were not shown were unnecessary, and within +two days the army was advancing again. On the 18th Jourdan’s +columns recrossed the river and extended around Charleroi +in the same positions as before. This time, having in view the +weariness of his troops and their heavy losses on the 16th, the +prince of Orange allowed the siege to proceed. His reasons for +so doing furnish an excellent illustration of the different ideas +and capacities of a professional army and a “nation in arms.” +“The Imperial troops,” wrote General Alvintzi, “are very +fatigued. We have fought nine times since the 10th of May, +we have bivouacked constantly, and made forced marches. +Further, we are short of officers.” All this, it need hardly be +pointed out, applied equally to the French.</p> + +<p>Charleroi, garrisoned by less than 3000 men, was intimidated +into surrender (25th) when the third parallel was barely established. +Thus the object of the first operations was achieved. +As to the next neither Jourdan nor the representatives seem to +have had anything further in view than the capture of more +fortresses. But within twenty-four hours events had decided +for them.</p> + +<p>Coburg had quickly abandoned his intention of closing on +his right wing, and (after the usual difficulties with his Allies +on that side) had withdrawn 12,000 Austrians from the centre +of his cordon opposite Pichegru, and made forced marches to +join the prince of Orange. On the 24th of June he had collected +52,000 men at various points round Charleroi, and on the 25th +he set out to relieve the little fortress. But he was in complete +ignorance of the state of affairs at Charleroi. Signal guns were +fired, but the woods drowned even the roar of the siege batteries, +and at last a party under Lieutenant Radetzky made its way +through the covering army and discovered that the place had +fallen. The party was destroyed on its return, but Radetzky +was reserved for greater things. He managed, though twice +wounded, to rejoin Coburg with his bad news in the midst of +the battle of Fleurus.</p> + +<p>On the 26th Jourdan’s army (now some 73,000 strong) was still +posted in a semicircle of entrenched posts, 20 m. in extent, +round the captured town, pending the removal of the now unnecessary +pontoon bridge at Marchiennes and the selection of +a shorter line of defence.</p> + +<p>Coburg was still more widely extended. Inferior in numbers +as he was, he proposed to attack on an equal front, and thus gave +himself, for the attack of an entrenched position, +an order of battle of three men to every two yards of +<span class="sidenote">Fleurus.</span> +front, all reserves included. The Allies were to attack in five +columns, the prince of Orange from the west and north-west +towards Trazegnies and Monceau wood, Quasdanovich from the +north on Gosselies, Kaunitz from the north-east, the archduke +Charles from the east through Fleurus, and finally Beaulieu +towards Lambusart. The scheme was worked out in such minute +detail and with so entire a disregard of the chance of unforeseen +incidents, that once he had given the executive command to move, +the Austrian general could do no more. If every detail worked +out as planned, victory would be his; if accidents happened +he could do nothing to redress them, and unless these righted +themselves (which was improbable in the case of the stiffly +organized old armies) he could only send round the order to break +off the action and retreat.</p> + +<p>In these circumstances the battle of Fleurus is the sum rather +than the product of the various fights that took place between +each allied column and the French division that it met. The +prince of Orange attacked at earliest dawn and gradually drove +in the French left wing to Courcelles, Roux and Marchiennes, +but somewhat after noon the French, under the direction for the +most part of Kléber, began a series of counterstrokes which +recovered the lost ground, and about 5, without waiting for +Coburg’s instructions, the prince retired north-westward off +the battlefield. The French centre division, under Morlot, made +a gradual fighting retreat on Gosselies, followed up by the +Quasdanovich column and part of Kaunitz’s force. No serious +impression was made on the defenders, chiefly because the brook +west of Mellet was a serious obstacle to the rigid order of the +Allies and had to be bridged before their guns could be got over. +Kaunitz’s column and Championnet’s division met on the battlefield +of 1690. The French were gradually driven in from the +outlying villages to their main position between Heppignies and +Wangenies. Here the Allies, well led and taking every advantage +of ground and momentary chances, had the best of it. They +pressed the French hard, necessitated the intervention of such +small reserves as Jourdan had available, and only gave way to the +defenders’ counterstroke at the moment they received Coburg’s +orders for a general retreat.</p> + +<p>On the allied left wing the fighting was closer and more severe +than at any point. Beaulieu on the extreme left advanced upon +Velaine and the French positions in the woods to the south in +several small groups of all arms. Here were the divisions of the +Army of the Ardennes, markedly inferior in discipline and +endurance to the rest, and only too mindful of their four previous +reverses. For six hours, more or less, they resisted the oncoming +Allies, but then, in spite of the example and the despairing +appeals of their young general Marceau, they broke and fled, +leaving Beaulieu free to combine with the archduke Charles, +who carried Fleurus after obstinate fighting, and then pressed on +towards Campinaire. Beaulieu took command of all the allied +forces on this side about noon, and from then to 5 <span class="scs">P.M.</span> launched +a series of terrible attacks on the French (Lefebvre’s division, +part of the general reserve, and the remnant of Marceau’s troops) +above Campinaire and Lambusart. The disciplined resolution +of the imperial battalions, and the enthusiasm of the French +Revolutionaries, were each at their height. The Austrians came +on time after time over ground that was practically destitute of +cover. Villages, farms and fields of corn caught fire. The French +grew more and more excited—“No retreat to-day!” they called +out to their leaders, and finally, clamouring to be led against the +enemy, they had their wish. Lefebvre seized the psychological +moment when the fourth attack of the Allies had failed, and +(though he did not know it) the order to retreat had come from +Coburg. The losses of the unit that delivered it were small, +for the charge exactly responded to the moral conditions of the +moment, but the proportion of killed to wounded (55 to 81) is +good evidence of the intensity of the momentary conflict.</p> + +<p>So ended the battle. Coburg had by now learned definitely +that Charleroi had surrendered, and while the issue of the battle +was still doubtful—for though the prince of Orange was beaten, +Beaulieu was in the full tide of success—he gave (towards 3 <span class="scs">P.M.</span>) +the order for a general retreat. This was delivered to the various +commanders between 4 and 5, and these, having their men in +hand even in the heat of the engagement, were able to break off +the battle without undue confusion. The French were far too +exhausted to pursue them (they had lost twice as many men +as the Allies), and their leader had practically no formed body +at hand to follow up the victory, thanks to the extraordinary +dissemination of the army.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Tourcoing, Tournay and Fleurus represent the maximum result +achievable under the earlier Revolutionary system of making war, +and show the men and the leaders at the highest point of combined +steadiness and enthusiasm they ever reached—that is, as a “Sansculotte” +army. Fleurus was also the last great victory of the +French, in point of time, prior to the advent of Napoleon, and may +therefore be considered as illustrating the general conditions of +warfare at one of the most important points in its development.</p> + +<p>The sequel of these battles can be told in a few words. The Austrian +government had, it is said, long ago decided to evacuate the Netherlands, +and Coburg retired over the Meuse, practically unpursued, +while the duke of York’s forces fell back in good order, though +pursued by Pichegru through Flanders. The English contingent +embarked for home, the rest retired through Holland into Hanoverian +territory, leaving the Dutch troops to surrender to the victors. The +last phase of the pursuit reflected great glory on Pichegru, for it +was conducted in midwinter through a country bare of supplies and +densely intersected with dykes and meres. The crowning incident +was the dramatic capture of the Dutch fleet, frozen in at the Texel, +by a handful of hussars who rode over the ice and browbeat the crews +of the well-armed battleships into surrender. It was many years +before a prince of Orange ruled again in the United provinces, while +the Austrian whitecoats never again mounted guard in Brussels.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>182</span></p> + +<p>The Rhine campaign of 1794, waged as before chiefly by the +Prussians, was not of great importance. General v. Möllendorf won a +victory at Kaiserslautern on the 23rd of May, but operations thereafter +became spasmodic, and were soon complicated by Coburg’s +retreat over the Meuse. With this event the offensive of the Allies +against the French Revolution came to an inglorious end. Poland +now occupied the thoughts of European statesmen, and Austria began +to draw her forces on to the east. England stopped the payment of +subsidies, and Prussia made the Peace of Basel on the 5th of April +1795. On the Spanish frontier the French under General Dugommier +(who was killed in the last battle) were successful in almost every +encounter, and Spain, too, made peace. Only the eternal enemies, +France and Austria, were left face to face on the Rhine, and elsewhere, +of all the Allies, Sardinia alone (see below under <i>Italian Campaigns</i>) +continued the struggle in a half-hearted fashion.</p> + +<p>The operations of 1795 on the Rhine present no feature of the +Revolutionary Wars that other and more interesting campaigns +fail to show. Austria had two armies on foot under the general +command of Clerfayt, one on the upper Rhine, the other south of +the Main, while Mainz was held by an army of imperial contingents. +The French, Jourdan on the lower; Pichegru on the upper Rhine, +had as usual superior numbers at their disposal. Jourdan combined +a demonstrative frontal attack on Neuwied with an advance in force +via Düsseldorf, reunited his wings beyond the river near Neuwied, +and drove back the Austrians in a series of small engagements to the +Main, while Pichegru passed at Mannheim and advanced towards +the Neckar. But ere long both were beaten, Jourdan at Höchst +and Pichegru at Mannheim, and the investment of Mainz had to be +abandoned. This was followed by the invasion of the Palatinate +by Clerfayt and the retreat of Jourdan to the Moselle. The position +was further compromised by secret negotiations between Pichegru +and the enemy for the restoration of the Bourbons. The meditated +treason came to light early in the following year, and the guilty +commander disappeared into the obscure ranks of the royalist +secret agents till finally brought to justice in 1804.</p> +</div> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">The Campaign of 1796 in Germany</p> + +<p>The wonder of Europe now transferred itself from the drama +of the French Revolution to the equally absorbing drama of a +great war on the Rhine. “Every day, for four terrible years,” +wrote a German pamphleteer early in 1796, “has surpassed the +one before it in grandeur and terror, and to-day surpasses all +in dizzy sublimity.” That a manœuvre on the Lahn should +possess an interest to the peoples of Europe surpassing that of +the Reign of Terror is indeed hardly imaginable, but there was a +good reason for the tense expectancy that prevailed everywhere. +France’s policy was no longer defensive. She aimed at invading +and “revolutionizing” the monarchies and principalities of old +Europe, and to this end the campaign of 1796 was to be the great +and conclusive effort. The “liberation of the oppressed” had +its part in the decision, and the glory of freeing the serf easily +merged itself in the glory of defeating the serf’s masters. But +a still more pressing motive for carrying the war into the enemy’s +country was the fact that France and the lands she had overrun +could no longer subsist her armies. The Directory frankly told +its generals, when they complained that their men were starving +and ragged, that they would find plenty of subsistence beyond +the Rhine.</p> + +<p>On her part, Austria, no longer fettered by allied contingents +nor by the expenses of a far distant campaign, could put forth +more strength than on former campaigns, and as war came +nearer home and the citizen saw himself threatened by “revolutionizing” +and devastating armies, he ceased to hamper or +to swindle the troops. Thus the duel took place on the grandest +scale then known in the history of European armies. Apart +from the secondary theatre of Italy, the area embraced in the +struggle was a vast triangle extending from Düsseldorf to Basel +and thence to Ratisbon, and Carnot sketched the outlines in +accordance with the scale of the picture. He imagined nothing +less than the union of the armies of the Rhine and the Riviera +before the walls of Vienna. Its practicability cannot here be +discussed, but it is worth contrasting the attitude of contemporaries +and of later strategical theorists towards it. The +former, with their empirical knowledge of war, merely thought +it impracticable with the available means, but the latter have +condemned it root and branch as “an operation on exterior +lines.”</p> + +<p>The scheme took shape only gradually. The first advance +was made partly in search of food, partly to disengage the +Palatinate, which Clerfayt had conquered in 1795. “If you +have reason to believe that you would find some supplies on +the Lahn, hasten thither with the greater part of your forces,” +wrote the Directory to Jourdan (Army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, +72,000) on the 29th of March. He was to move at once, +before the Austrians could concentrate, and to pass the Rhine +at Düsseldorf, thereby bringing back the centre of the +<span class="sidenote">Jourdan and Moreau.</span> +enemy over the river. He was, further, to take every +advantage of their want of concentration to deliver +blow after blow, and to do his utmost to break them +up completely. A fortnight later Moreau (Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle, +78,000) was ordered to take advantage of Jourdan’s +move, which would draw most of the Austrian forces to the +Mainz region, to enter the Breisgau and Suabia. “You will +attack Austria at home, and capture her magazines. You will +enter a new country, the resources of which, properly handled, +should suffice for the needs of the Army of the Rhine-and-Moselle.”</p> + +<p>Jourdan, therefore, was to take upon himself the destruction +of the enemy, Moreau the invasion of South Germany. The +first object of both was to subsist their armies beyond the +Rhine, the second to defeat the armies and terrorize the populations +of the empire. Under these instructions the campaign +opened. Jourdan crossed at Düsseldorf and reached the Lahn, +but the enemy concentrated against him very swiftly and he +had to retire over the river. Still, if he had not been able to +“break them up completely,” he had at any rate drawn on +himself the weight of the Austrian army, and enabled Moreau +to cross at Strassburg without much difficulty.</p> + +<p>The Austrians were now commanded by the archduke Charles, +who, after all detachments had been made, disposed of some +56,000 men. At first he employed the bulk of this force against +Jourdan, but on hearing of Moreau’s progress he returned to +the Neckar country with 20,000 men, leaving Feldzeugmeister +v. Wartensleben with 36,000 to observe Jourdan. In later +years he admitted himself that his own force was far too small +to deal with Moreau, who, he probably thought, would retire +after a few manœuvres.</p> + +<p>But by now the two French generals were aiming at something +more than alternate raids and feints. Carnot had set before +them the ideal of a decisive battle as the great object. +Jourdan was instructed, if the archduke turned on +<span class="sidenote">The archduke’s plan.</span> +Moreau, to follow him up with all speed and to bring +him to action. Moreau, too, was not retreating but +advancing. The two armies, Moreau’s and the archduke’s, met +in a straggling and indecisive battle at Malsch on the 9th of +July, and soon afterwards Charles learned that Jourdan had +recrossed the Rhine and was driving Wartensleben before him. +He thereupon retired both armies from the Rhine valley into the +interior, hoping that at least the French would detach large +forces to besiege the river fortresses. Disappointed of this, and +compelled to face a very grave situation, he resorted to an +expedient which may be described in his own words: “to +retire both armies step by step without committing himself +to a battle, and to seize the first opportunity to unite them so +as to throw himself with superior or at least equal strength on +one of the two hostile enemies.” This is the ever-recurring idea +of “interior lines.” It was not new, for Frederick the Great had +used similar means in similar circumstances, as had Souham +at Tourcoing and even Dampierre at Valenciennes. Nor was it +differentiated, as were Napoleon’s operations in this same year, +by the deliberate use of a small containing force at one point +to obtain relative superiority at another. A general of the 18th +century did not believe in the efficacy of superior numbers—had +not Frederick the Great disproved it?—and for him operations +on “interior lines” were simply successive blows at successive +targets, the efficacy of the blow in each case being dependent +chiefly on his own personal qualities and skill as a general on +the field of battle. In the present case the point to be observed +is not the expedient, which was dictated by the circumstances, +but the courage of the young general, who, unlike Wartensleben +and the rest of his generals, unlike, too, Moreau and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>183</span> +Jourdan themselves, surmounted difficulties instead of lamenting +them.</p> + +<p>On the other side, Carnot, of course, foresaw this possibility. +He warned the generals not to allow the enemy to “use his +forces sometimes against one, sometimes against the other, as +he did in the last campaign,” and ordered them to go forward +respectively into Franconia and into the country of the upper +Neckar, with a view to seeking out and defeating the enemy’s +army. But the plan of operations soon grew bolder. Jourdan +was informed on the 21st of July that if he reached the Regnitz +without meeting the enemy, or if his arrival there forced the +latter to retire rapidly to the Danube, he was not to hesitate to +advance to Ratisbon and even to Passau if the disorganization +of the enemy admitted it, but in these contingencies he was to +detach a force into Bohemia to levy contributions. “We presume +that the enemy is too weak to offer a successful resistance +and will have united his forces on the Danube; we hope that +our two armies will act in unison to rout him completely. Each +is, in any case, strong enough to attack by itself, and nothing +is so pernicious as slowness in war.” Evidently the fear that +the two Austrian armies would unite against one of their assailants +had now given place to something like disdain.</p> + +<p>This was due in all probability to the rapidity with which +Moreau was driving the archduke before him. After a brief +stand on the Neckar at Cannstadt, the Austrians, only 25,000 +strong, fell back to the Rauhe Alb, where they halted again, +to cover their magazines at Ulm and Günzburg, towards the end +of July. Wartensleben was similarly falling back before Jourdan, +though the latter, starting considerably later than Moreau, had +not advanced so far. The details of the successive positions +occupied by Wartensleben need not be stated; all that concerns +the general development of the campaign is the fact that the +hitherto independent leader of the “Lower Rhine Army” +resented the loss of his freedom of action, and besides lamentations +opposed a dull passive resistance to all but the most formal +orders of the prince. Many weeks passed before this was overcome +sufficiently for his leader even to arrange for the contemplated +combination, and in these weeks the archduke was being +driven back day by day, and the German principalities were +falling away one by one as the French advanced and preached +the revolutionary formula. In such circumstances as these—the +general facts, if not the causes, were patent enough—it was +natural that the confident Paris strategists should think chiefly +of the profits of their enterprise and ignore the fears of the generals +at the front. But the latter were justified in one important +respect; their operating armies had seriously diminished in +numbers, Jourdan disposing of not more than 45,000 and Moreau +of about 50,000. The archduke had now, owing to the arrival +of a few detachments from the Black Forest and elsewhere, about +34,000 men, Wartensleben almost exactly the same, and the +former, for some reason which has never been fully explained +but has its justification in psychological factors, suddenly turned +<span class="sidenote">Neresheim.</span> +and fought a long, severe and straggling battle above +Neresheim (August 11). This did not, however, give +him much respite, and on the 12th and 13th he retired over the +Danube. At this date Wartensleben was about Amberg, almost +as far away from the other army as he had been on the Rhine, +owing to the necessity of retreating round instead of through the +principality of Bayreuth, which was a Prussian possession and +could therefore make its neutrality respected.</p> + +<p>Hitherto Charles had intended to unite his armies on the +Danube against Moreau. His later choice of Jourdan’s army as +the objective of his combination grew out of circumstances and +in particular out of the brilliant reconnaissance work of a cavalry +brigadier of the Lower Rhine Army, Nauendorff. This general’s +reports—he was working in the country south and south-east +of Nürnberg, Wartensleben being at Amberg—indicated first an +advance of Jourdan’s army from Forchheim through Nürnberg +to the <i>south</i>, and induced the archduke, on the 12th, to begin a +concentration of his own army towards Ingolstadt. This was a +purely defensive measure, but Nauendorff reported on the 13th +and 14th that the main columns of the French were swinging +away to the east against Wartensleben’s front and inner flank, +and on the 14th he boldly suggested the idea that decided the +campaign. “If your Royal Highness will or can advance 12,000 +men against Jourdan’s rear, he is lost. We could not have a +better opportunity.” When this message arrived at headquarters +the archduke had already issued orders to the same +effect. Lieutenant Field Marshal Count Latour, with 30,000 +men, was to keep Moreau occupied—another expedient of the +moment, due to the very close pressure of Moreau’s advance, +and the failure of the attempt to put him out of action at +Neresheim. The small remainder of the army, with a few +detachments gathered <i>en route</i>, in all about 27,000 men, began +to recross the Danube on the 14th, and slowly advanced north +on a broad front, its leader being now sure that at some point +on his line he would encounter the French, whether they were +heading for Ratisbon or Amberg. Meanwhile, the Directory had, +still acting on the theory of the archduke’s weakness, ordered +Moreau to combine the operations with those of Bonaparte in +Italian Tirol, and Jourdan to turn both flanks of his immediate +opponent, and thus to prevent his joining the archduke, as well +as his retreat into Bohemia. And curiously enough it was this +latter, and not Moreau’s move, which suggested to the archduke +that his chance had come. The chance was, in fact, one dear to +the 18th century general, catching his opponent in the act of +executing a manœuvre. So far from “exterior lines” being +fatal to Jourdan, it was not until the French general began to +operate against Wartensleben’s <i>inner</i> flank that the archduke’s +opportunity came.</p> + +<p>The decisive events of the campaign can be described very +briefly, the ideas that directed them having been made clear. +The long thin line of the archduke wrapped itself round +Jourdan’s right flank near Amberg, while Wartensleben +<span class="sidenote">Amberg and Würzburg.</span> +fought him in front. The battle (August 24) was a +series of engagements between the various columns that +met; it was a repetition in fact of Fleurus, without the intensity +of fighting spirit that redeems that battle from dulness. Success +followed, not upon bravery or even tactics, but upon the pre-existing +strategical conditions. At the end of the day the French +retired, and next morning the archduke began another wide +extension to his left, hoping to head them off. This consumed +several days. In the course of it Jourdan attempted to take +advantage of his opponent’s dissemination to regain the direct +road to Würzburg, but the attempt was defeated by an almost +fortuitous combination of forces at the threatened point. More +effective, indeed, than this indirect pursuit was the very active +hostility of the peasantry, who had suffered in Jourdan’s advance +and retaliated so effectually during his retreat that the army +became thoroughly demoralized, both by want of food and by +the strain of incessant sniping. Defeated again at Würzburg on +the 3rd of September, Jourdan continued his retreat to the Lahn, +and finally withdrew the shattered army over the Rhine, partly +by Düsseldorf, partly by Neuwied. In the last engagement +on the Lahn the young and brilliant Marceau was mortally +wounded. Far away in Bavaria, Moreau had meantime been +driving Latour from one line of resistance to another. On receiving +the news of Jourdan’s reverses, however, he made a rapid +and successful retreat to Strassburg, evading the prince’s army, +which had ascended the Rhine valley to head him off, in the nick +of time.</p> + +<p>This celebrated campaign is pre-eminently strategical in its +character, in that the positions and movements anterior to the +battle preordained its issue. It raised the reputation of the archduke +Charles to the highest point, and deservedly, for he wrested +victory from the most desperate circumstances by the skilful +and resolute employment of his one advantage. But this was +only possible because Moreau and Jourdan were content to accept +strategical failure without seeking to redress the balance by hard +fighting. The great question of this campaign is, why did +Moreau and Jourdan fail against inferior numbers, when in Italy +Bonaparte with a similar army against a similar opponent won +victory after victory against equal and superior forces? The +answer will not be supplied by any theory of “exterior and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>184</span> +interior lines.” It lies far deeper. So far as it is possible to +summarize it in one phrase, it lies in the fact that though the +Directory meant this campaign to be the final word on the +Revolutionary War, for the nation at large this final word had +been said at Fleurus. The troops were still the nation; they no +longer fought for a cause and for bare existence, and Moreau and +Jourdan were too closely allied in ideas and sympathies with the +misplaced citizen soldiers they commanded to be able to dominate +their collective will. In default of a cause, however, soldiers +will fight for a man, and this brings us by a natural sequence of +ideas to the war in Italy.</p> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">The War in Italy 1793-97</p> + +<p>Hitherto we have ignored the operations on the Italian +frontier, partly because they were of minor importance and +partly because the conditions out of which Napoleon’s first +campaign arose can be best considered in connexion with that +campaign itself, from which indeed the previous operations +derive such light as they possess. It has been mentioned that +in 1792 the French overran Savoy and Nice. In 1793 the +Sardinian army and a small auxiliary corps of Austrians waged +a desultory mountain warfare against the Army of the Alps +about Briançon and the Army of Italy on the Var. That furious +offensive on the part of the French, which signalized the year 1793 +elsewhere, was made impossible here by the counter-revolution +in the cities of the Midi.</p> + +<p>In 1794, when this had been crushed, the intention of the French +government was to take the offensive against the Austro-Sardinians. +The first operation was to be the capture of Oneglia. +The concentration of large forces in the lower Rhone valley had +naturally infringed upon the areas told off for the provisioning of +the Armies of the Alps (Kellermann) and of Italy (Dumerbion); +indeed, the sullen population could hardly be induced to feed the +troops suppressing the revolt, still less the distant frontier +armies. Thus the only source of supply was the Riviera of +Genoa: “Our connexion with this district is imperilled by the +corsairs of Oneglia (a Sardinian town) owing to the cessation of +our operations afloat. The army is living from hand to mouth,” +wrote the younger Robespierre in September 1793. Vessels +bearing supplies from Genoa could not avoid the corsairs by +taking the open sea, for there the British fleet was supreme. +Carnot therefore ordered the Army of Italy to capture Oneglia, +and 21,000 men (the rest of the 67,000 effectives were held back +for coast defence) began operations in April. The French left +moved against the enemy’s positions on the main road over the +Col di Tenda, the centre towards Ponte di Nava, and the right +<span class="sidenote">Saorgio.</span> +along the Riviera. All met with success, thanks to +Masséna’s bold handling of the centre column. Not +only was Oneglia captured, but also the Col di Tenda. Napoleon +Bonaparte served in these affairs on the headquarter staff. +Meantime the Army of the Alps had possessed itself of the Little +St Bernard and Mont Cenis, and the Republicans were now +masters of several routes into Piedmont (May). But the Alpine +roads merely led to fortresses, and both Carnot and Bonaparte—Napoleon +had by now captivated the younger Robespierre and +become the leading spirit in Dumerbion’s army—considered +that the Army of the Alps should be weakened to the profit of +the Army of Italy, and that the time had come to disregard the +feeble neutrality of Genoa, and to advance over the Col di Tenda.</p> + +<p>Napoleon’s first suggestion for a rapid condensation of the +French cordon, and an irresistible blow on the centre of the Allies +by Tenda-Coni,<a name="fa7a" id="fa7a" href="#ft7a"><span class="sp">7</span></a> came to nothing owing to the waste +of time in negotiations between the generals and the +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon in 1794.</span> +distant Committee, and meanwhile new factors came +into play. The capture of the pass of Argentera by the right wing +of the Army of the Alps suggested that the main effort should be +made against the barrier fortress of Demonte, but here again +Napoleon proposed a concentration of effort on the primary and +economy of force in the secondary objective. About the same +time, in a memoir on the war in general, he laid down his most +celebrated maxim: “The principles of war are the same as those +of a siege. Fire must be concentrated on one point, and as soon +as the breach is made, the equilibrium is broken and the rest is +nothing.” In the domain of tactics he was and remains the +principal exponent of the art of breaking the equilibrium, and +already he imagined the solution of problems of policy and +strategy on the same lines. “Austria is the great enemy; +Austria crushed, Germany, Spain, Italy fall of themselves. We +must not disperse, but concentrate our attack.” Napoleon +argued that Austria could be effectively wounded by an offensive +against Piedmont, and even more effectively by an ulterior +advance from Italian soil into Germany. In pursuance of the +single aim he asked for the appointment of a single commander-in-chief +to hold sway from Bayonne to the Lake of Geneva, and +for the rejection of all schemes for “revolutionizing” Italy till +after the defeat of the arch-enemy.</p> + +<p>Operations, however, did not after all take either of these forms. +The younger Robespierre perished with his brother in the <i>coup +d’état</i> of 9th Thermidor, the advance was suspended, and +Bonaparte, amongst other leading spirits of the Army of Italy, +was arrested and imprisoned. Profiting by this moment, Austria +increased her auxiliary corps. An Austrian general took command +of the whole of the allied forces, and pronounced a threat from +the region of Cairo (where the Austrians took their place on the +left wing of the combined army) towards the Riviera. The +French, still dependent on Genoa for supplies, had to take the +offensive at once to save themselves from starvation, and the +result was the expedition of Dego, planned chiefly by Napoleon, +who had been released from prison and was at headquarters, +though unemployed. The movement began on the 17th of +September; and although the Austrian general Colloredo +repulsed an attack at Dego (Sept. 21) he retreated to Acqui, +and the incipient offensive of the Allies ended abruptly.</p> + +<p>The first months of the winter of 1794-1795 were spent in +re-equipping the troops, who stood in sore need after their rapid +movements in the mountains. For the future operations, the +enforced condensation of the army on its right wing with the +object of protecting its line of supply to Genoa and the dangers of +its cramped situation on the Riviera suggested a plan roughly +resembling one already recommended by Napoleon, who had +since the affair of Dego become convinced that the way into +Italy was through the Apennines and not the Alps. The essence +of this was to anticipate the enemy by a very early and rapid +advance from Vado towards Carcare by the Ceva road, the only +good road of which the French disposed and which they significantly +called the <i>chemin de canon</i>.</p> + +<p>The plan, however, came to nothing; the Committee, which +now changed its personnel at fixed intervals, was in consequence +wavering and non-committal, troops were withdrawn +for a projected invasion of Corsica, and in November +<span class="sidenote">Schérer and Kellermann.</span> +1794 Dumerbion was replaced by Schérer, who +assembled only 17,000 of his 54,000 effectives for field +operations, and selected as his line of advance the Col di Tenda-Coni +road. Schérer, besides being hostile to any suggestion +emanating from Napoleon, was impressed with the apparent +danger to his right wing concentrated in the narrow Riviera, +which it was at this stage impossible to avert by a sudden and +early assumption of the offensive. After a brief tenure Schérer +was transferred to the Spanish frontier, but Kellermann, who now +received command of the Army of Italy in addition to his own, +took the same view as his predecessor—the view of the ordinary +general. But not even the Schérer plan was put into execution, +for spring had scarcely arrived when the prospect of renewed +revolts in the south of France practically paralysed the army.</p> + +<p>This encouraged the enemy to deliver the blow that had so long +been feared. The combined forces, under Devins,—the Sardinians, +the Austrian auxiliary corps and the newly arrived +Austrian main army,—advanced together and forced the French +right wing to evacuate Vado and the Genoese littoral. But at +this juncture the conclusion of peace with Spain released the +Pyrenees armies, and Schérer returned to the Army of Italy at the +head of reinforcements. He was faced with a difficult situation, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>185</span> +but he had the means wherewith to meet it, as Napoleon +promptly pointed out. Up to this, Napoleon said, the French +commanded the mountain crest, and therefore covered Savoy and +Nice, and also Oneglia, Loano and Vado, the ports of the Riviera. +But now that Vado was lost the breach was made. Genoa was +cut off, and the south of France was the only remaining resource +for the army commissariat. Vado must therefore be retaken and +the line reopened to Genoa, and to do this it was essential first +to close up the over-extended cordon—and with the greatest +rapidity, lest the enemy, with the shorter line to move on, should +gather at the point of contact before the French—and to advance +on Vado. Further, knowing (as every one knew) that the king of +Sardinia was not inclined to continue the struggle indefinitely, he +predicted that this ruler would make peace once the French army +had established itself in his dominions, and for this the way into +the interior, he asserted, was the great road Savona-Ceva. But +Napoleon’s mind ranged beyond the immediate future. He +calculated that once the French advanced the Austrians would +seek to cover Lombardy, the Piedmontese Turin, and this separation, +already morally accomplished, it was to be the French +general’s task to accentuate in fact. Next, Sardinia having been +coerced into peace, the Army of Italy would expel the Austrians +from Lombardy, and connect its operations with those of the +French in South Germany by way of Tirol. The supply question, +once the soldiers had gained the rich valley of the Po, would +solve itself.</p> + +<p>This was the essence of the first of four memoranda on this +subject prepared by Napoleon in his Paris office. The second +indicated the means of coercing Sardinia—first the +Austrians were to be driven or scared away towards +<span class="sidenote">Loano.</span> +Alessandria, then the French army would turn sharp to the left, +driving the Sardinians eastward and north-eastward through +Ceva, and this was to be the signal for the general invasion of +Piedmont from all sides. In the third paper he framed an +elaborate plan for the retaking of Vado, and in the fourth he +summarized the contents of the other three. Having thus +cleared his own mind as to the conditions and the solution +of the problem, he did his best to secure the command for +himself.</p> + +<p>The measures recommended by Napoleon were translated +into a formal and detailed order to recapture Vado. To Napoleon +the miserable condition of the Army of Italy was the most urgent +incentive to prompt action. In Schérer’s judgment, however, the +army was unfit to take the field, and therefore <i>ex hypothesi</i> to +attack Vado, without thorough reorganization, and it was only in +November that the advance was finally made. It culminated, +thanks once more to the resolute Masséna, in the victory of Loano +(November 23-24). But Schérer thought more of the destitution +of his own army than of the fruits of success, and contented +himself with resuming possession of the Riviera.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Mentor whose suggestions and personality were +equally repugnant to Schérer had undergone strange vicissitudes +of fortune—dismissal from the headquarters’ staff, expulsion from +the list of general officers, and then the “whiff of grapeshot” +of 13th Vendémiaire, followed shortly by his marriage with +Josephine, and his nomination to command the Army of Italy. +These events had neither shaken his cold resolution nor disturbed +his balance.</p> + +<p>The Army of Italy spent the winter of 1795-1796 as before in the +narrow Riviera, while on the one side, just over the mountains, +lay the Austro-Sardinians, and on the other, out of +range of the coast batteries but ready to pounce on the +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon in command.</span> +supply ships, were the British frigates. On Bonaparte’s +left Kellermann, with no more than 18,000, maintained +a string of posts between Lake Geneva and the Argentera as before. +Of the Army of Italy, 7000 watched the Tenda road and 20,000 +men the coast-line. There remained for active operations some +27,000 men, ragged, famished and suffering in every way in spite +of their victory of Loano. The Sardinian and Austrian auxiliaries +(Colli), 25,000 men, lay between Mondovi and Ceva, a force +strung out in the Alpine valleys opposed Kellermann, and the +main Austrian army (commanded by Beaulieu), in widely extended +cantonments between Acqui and Milan, numbered 27,000 field +troops. Thus the short-lived concentration of all the allied +forces for the battle against Schérer had ended in a fresh separation. +Austria was far more concerned with Poland than with the +moribund French question, and committed as few of her troops as +possible to this distant and secondary theatre of war. As for +Piedmont, “peace” was almost the universal cry, even within +the army. All this scarcely affected the regimental spirit and +discipline of the Austrian squadrons and battalions, which had +now recovered from the defeat of Loano. But they were important +factors for the new general-in-chief on the Riviera, and +formed the basis of his strategy.</p> + +<p>Napoleon’s first task was far more difficult than the writing of +memoranda. He had to grasp the reins and to prepare his troops, +morally and physically, for active work. It was not merely that a +young general with many enemies, a political favourite of the +moment, had been thrust upon the army. The army itself was +in a pitiable condition. Whole companies with their officers went +plundering in search of mere food, the horses had never received +as much as half-rations for a year past, and even the generals +were half-starved. Thousands of men were barefooted and +hundreds were without arms. But in a few days he had secured +an almost incredible ascendancy over the sullen, starved, +half-clothed +army.</p> + +<p>“Soldiers,” he told them, “you are famished and nearly naked. +The government owes you much, but can do nothing for you. +Your patience, your courage, do you honour, but give you no +glory, no advantage. I will lead you into the most fertile plains +of the world. There you will find great towns, rich provinces. +There you will find honour, glory and riches. Soldiers of Italy, +will you be wanting in courage?”</p> + +<p>Such words go far, and little as he was able to supply material +deficiencies—all he could do was to expel rascally contractors, +sell a captured privateer for £5000 and borrow £2500 from +Genoa—he cheerfully told the Directory on the 28th of March +that “the worst was over.” He augmented his army of operations +to about 40,000, at the expense of the coast divisions, and set on +foot also two small cavalry divisions, mounted on the half-starved +horses that had survived the winter. Then he announced that +the army was ready and opened the campaign.</p> + +<p>The first plan, emanating from Paris, was that, after an +expedition towards Genoa to assist in raising a loan there, the +army should march against Beaulieu, previously neutralizing +the Sardinians by the occupation of Ceva. When Beaulieu was +beaten it was thought probable that the Piedmontese would enter +into an alliance with the French against their former comrades. +A second plan, however, authorized the general to begin by +subduing the Piedmontese to the extent necessary to bring about +peace and alliance, and on this Napoleon acted. If the present +separation of the Allies continued, he proposed to overwhelm the +Sardinians first, before the Austrians could assemble from winter +quarters, and then to turn on Beaulieu. If, on the other hand, the +Austrians, before he could strike his blow, united with Colli, he +proposed to frighten them into separating again by moving on +Acqui and Alessandria. Hence Carcare, where the road from +Acqui joined the “cannon-road,” was the first objective of his +march, and from there he could manœuvre and widen the breach +between the allied armies. His scattered left wing would assist +in the attack on the Sardinians as well as it could—for the +immediate attack on the Austrians its co-operation would of +course have been out of the question. In any case he grudged +every week spent in administrative preparation. The delay due +to this, as a matter of fact, allowed a new situation to develop. +Beaulieu was himself the first to move, and he moved towards +Genoa instead of towards his Allies. The gap between the two +allied wings was thereby widened, but it was no longer possible +for the French to use it, for their plan of destroying Colli <i>while +Beaulieu was ineffective</i> had collapsed.</p> + +<p>In connexion with the Genoese loan, and to facilitate the movement +of supply convoys, a small French force had been pushed +forward to Voltri. Bonaparte ordered it back as soon as he +arrived at the front, but the alarm was given. The Austrians +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>186</span> +broke up from winter quarters at once, and rather than lose the +food supplies at Voltri, Bonaparte actually reinforced Masséna +at that place, and gave him orders to hold on as long as possible, +cautioning him only to watch his left rear (Montenotte). But +he did not abandon his purpose. Starting from the new conditions, +he devised other means, as we shall see, for reducing +Beaulieu to ineffectiveness. Meanwhile Beaulieu’s plan of +offensive operations, such as they were, developed. The French +advance to Voltri had not only spurred him into activity, but +convinced him that the bulk of the French army lay east of +Savona. He therefore made Voltri the objective of a converging +<span class="sidenote">Opening movements.</span> +attack, not with the intention of destroying the French +army but with that of “cutting its communications +with Genoa,” and expelling it from “the only place +in the Riviera where there were sufficient ovens to +bake its bread.” (Beaulieu to the Aulic Council, 15 April.) The +Sardinians and auxiliary Austrians were ordered to extend +leftwards on Dego to close the gap that Beaulieu’s advance on +Genoa-Voltri opened up, which they did, though only half-heartedly +and in small force, for, unlike Beaulieu, they knew +that masses of the enemy were still in the western stretch of the +Riviera. The rightmost of Beaulieu’s own columns was on the +road between Acqui and Savona with orders to seize Monte +Legino as an advanced post, the others were to converge towards +Voltri from the Genoa side and the mountain passes about +Campofreddo and Sassello. The wings were therefore so far +connected that Colli wrote to Beaulieu on this day “the enemy +will never dare to place himself between our two armies.” The +event belied the prediction, and the proposed minor operation +against granaries and bakeries became the first act of a decisive +campaign.</p> + +<p>On the night of the 9th of April the French were grouped +as follows: brigades under Garnier and Macquard at the Finestre +and Tenda passes, Sérurier’s division and Rusca’s brigade east +of Garessio; Augereau’s division about Loano, Meynier’s at +Finale, Laharpe’s at Savona with an outpost on the Monte +Legino, and Cervoni’s brigade at Voltri. Masséna was in general +charge of the last-named units. The cavalry was far in rear +beyond Loano. Colli’s army, excluding the troops in the valleys +that led into Dauphiné, was around Coni and Mondovi-Ceva, +the latter group connecting with Beaulieu by a detachment +under Provera between Millesimo and Carcare. Of Beaulieu’s +army, Argenteau’s division, still concentrating to the front +in many small bodies, extended over the area Acqui-Dego-Sassello. +Vukassovich’s brigade was equally extended between +Ovada and the mountain-crests above Voltri, and Pittoni’s +division was grouped around Gavi and the Bocchetta, the two +last units being destined for the attack on Voltri. Farther to +the rear was Sebottendorf’s division around Alessandria-Tortona.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the 10th Beaulieu delivered his blow +at Voltri, not, as he anticipated, against three-quarters of the +French army, but against Cervoni’s detachment. This, after a +long irregular fight, slipped away in the night to Savona. Discovering +his mistake next morning, Beaulieu sent back some +of his battalions to join Argenteau. But there was no road +by which they could do so save the détour through Acqui and +Dego, and long before they arrived Argenteau’s advance on +Monte Legino had forced on the crisis. On the 11th (a day +behind time), this general drove in the French outposts, but he +soon came on three battalions under Colonel Rampon, who +threw himself into some old earthworks that lay near, and said +to his men, “We must win or die here, my friends.” His redoubt +and his men stood the trial well, and when day broke on the +12th Bonaparte was ready to deliver his first “Napoleon-stroke.”</p> + +<p>The principle that guided him in the subsequent operations +may be called “superior numbers at the decisive point.” Touch +had been gained with the enemy all along the long line +between the Tenda and Voltri, and he decided to +<span class="sidenote">Montenotte.</span> +concentrate swiftly upon the nearest enemy—Argenteau. +Augereau’s division, or such part of it as could march at once, +was ordered to Mallare, picking up here and there on the way +a few horsemen and guns. Masséna, with 9000 men, was to +send two brigades in the direction of Carcare and Altare, and with +the third to swing round Argenteau’s right and to head for +Montenotte village in his rear. Laharpe with 7000 (it had +become clear that the enemy at Voltri would not pursue their +advantage) was to join Rampon, leaving only Cervoni and two +battalions in Savona. Sérurier and Rusca were to keep the +Sardinians in front of them occupied. The far-distant brigades +of Garnier and Macquard stood fast, but the cavalry drew +eastward as quickly as its condition permitted. In rain and +mist on the early morning of the 12th the French marched up +from all quarters, while Argenteau’s men waited in their cold +bivouacs for light enough to resume their attack on Monte +Legino. About 9 the mists cleared, and heavy fighting began, +but Laharpe held the mountain, and the vigorous Masséna with +his nearest brigade stormed forward against Argenteau’s right. +A few hours later, seeing Augereau’s columns heading for their +line of retreat, the Austrians retired, sharply pressed, on Dego. +The threatened intervention of Provera was checked by +Augereau’s presence at Carcare.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:513px; height:500px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img186.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p class="pt2">Montenotte was a brilliant victory, and one can imagine its +effects on the but lately despondent soldiers of the Army of +Italy, for all imagined that Beaulieu’s main body had been +defeated. This was far from being the case, however, and although +the French spent the night of the battle at Cairo-Carcare-Montenotte, +midway between the allied wings, only two-thirds of +Argenteau’s force, and none of the other divisions, had been +beaten, and the heaviest fighting was to come. This became +evident on the afternoon of the 13th, but meanwhile Bonaparte, +eager to begin at once the subjugation of the Piedmontese (for +which purpose he wanted to bring Sérurier and Rusca into play) +sent only Laharpe’s division and a few details of Masséna’s, +under the latter, towards Dego. These were to protect the +main attack from interference by the forces that had been +<span class="sidenote">Millesimo.</span> +engaged at Montenotte (presumed to be Beaulieu’s +main body), the said main attack being delivered by +Augereau’s division, reinforced by most of Masséna’s, on the +positions held by Provera. The latter, only 1000 strong to +Augereau’s 9000, shut himself in the castle of Cossaria, which +he defended <i>à la</i> Rampon against a series of furious assaults. +Not until the morning of the 14th was his surrender secured, +after his ammunition and food had been exhausted.</p> + +<p>Argenteau also won a day’s respite on the 13th, for Laharpe +did not join Masséna till late, and nothing took place opposite +Dego but a little skirmishing. During the day Bonaparte saw +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>187</span> +for himself that he had overrated the effects of Montenotte. +Beaulieu, on the other hand, underrated them, treating it as a +mishap which was more than counterbalanced by his own +success in “cutting off the French from Genoa.” He began to +reconstruct his line on the front Dego-Sassello, trusting to +Colli to harry the French until the Voltri troops had finished +their détour through Acqui and rejoined Argenteau. This, of +course, presumed that Argenteau’s troops were intact and +Colli’s able to move, which was not the case with either. Not +until the afternoon of the 14th did Beaulieu place a few extra +battalions at Argenteau’s disposal “to be used only in case of +extreme necessity,” and order Vukassovich from the region +of Sassello to “make a diversion” against the French right +with <i>two</i> battalions.</p> + +<p>Thus Argenteau, already shaken, was exposed to destruction. +On the 14th, after Provera’s surrender, Masséna and Laharpe, +reinforced until they had nearly a two-to-one superiority, +stormed Dego and killed or captured 3000 of +<span class="sidenote">Dego.</span> +Argenteau’s 5500 men, the remnant retreating in disorder to +Acqui. But nothing was done towards the accomplishment of +the purpose of destroying Colli on that day, save that Sérurier +and Rusca began to close in to meet the main body between +Ceva and Millesimo. Moreover, the victory at Dego had produced +its usual results on the wild fighting swarms of the Republicans, +who threw themselves like hungry wolves on the little town, +without pursuing the beaten enemy or even placing a single +outpost on the Acqui road. In this state, during the early +hours of the 15th, Vukassovich’s brigade,<a name="fa8a" id="fa8a" href="#ft8a"><span class="sp">8</span></a> marching up from +Sassello, surprised them, and they broke and fled in an instant. +The whole morning had to be spent in rallying them at Cairo, +and Bonaparte had for the second time to postpone his union +with Sérurier and Rusca, who meanwhile, isolated from one +another and from the main army, were groping forward in the +mountains. A fresh assault on Dego was ordered, and after +very severe fighting, Masséna and Laharpe succeeded late in +the evening in retaking it. Vukassovich lost heavily, but +retired steadily and in order on Spigno. The killed and wounded +numbered probably about 1000 French and 1500 Austrians, +out of considerably less than 10,000 engaged on each side—a +loss which contrasted very forcibly with those suffered in other +battles of the Revolutionary Wars, and by teaching the Army +of Italy to bear punishment, imbued it with self-confidence. +But again success bred disorder, and there was a second orgy in +the houses and streets of Dego which went on till late in the +morning and paralysed the whole army.</p> + +<p>This was perhaps the crisis of the campaign. Even now it +was not certain that the Austrians had been definitively pushed +aside, while it was quite clear that Beaulieu’s main body was +intact and Colli was still more an unknown quantity. But +Napoleon’s intention remained the same, to attack the Piedmontese +as quickly and as heavily as possible, Beaulieu being +held in check by a containing force under Masséna and Laharpe. +The remainder of the army, counting in now Rusca and Sérurier, +was to move westward towards Ceva. This disposition, while +it illustrates the Napoleonic principle of delivering a heavy +blow on the selected target and warding off interference at other +points, shows also the difficulty of rightly apportioning the +available means between the offensive mass and the defensive +system, for, as it turned out, Beaulieu was already sufficiently +scared, and thought of nothing but self-defence on the line +Acqui-Ovada-Bocchetta, while the French offensive mass was +very weak compared with Colli’s unbeaten and now fairly +concentrated army about Ceva and Montezemolo.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the 16th the real advance was begun by +Augereau’s division, reinforced by other troops. Rusca joined +Augereau towards evening, and Sérurier approached Ceva +from the south. Colli’s object was now to spin out time, and +having repulsed a weak attack by Augereau, and feeling able +to repeat these tactics on each successive spur of the Apennines, +he retired in the night to a new position behind the Cursaglia. +On the 17th, reassured by the absence of fighting on the Dego +side, and by the news that no enemy remained at Sassello, +Bonaparte released Masséna from Dego, leaving only Laharpe +there, and brought him over towards the right of the main +body, which thus on the evening of the 17th formed a long +straggling line on both sides of Ceva, Sérurier on the left, +écheloned forward, Augereau, Joubert and Rusca in the centre, +and Masséna, partly as support, partly as flank guard, on +Augereau’s right rear. Sérurier had been bidden to extend +well out and to strive to get contact with Masséna, <i>i.e.</i> to +encircle the enemy. There was no longer any idea of waiting +to besiege Ceva, although the artillery train had been ordered +up from the Riviera by the “cannon-road” for eventual use +there. Further, the line of supply, as an extra guarantee against +interference, was changed from that of Savona-Carcare to that of +Loano-Bardinetto. When this was accomplished, four clear days +could be reckoned on with certainty in which to deal with Colli.</p> + +<p>The latter, still expecting the Austrians to advance to his +assistance, had established his corps (not more than 12,000 +muskets in all) in the immensely strong positions +of the Cursaglia, with a thin line of posts on his left +<span class="sidenote">San Michele.</span> +stretching towards Cherasco, whence he could communicate, +by a roundabout way, with Acqui. Opposite this +position the long straggling line of the French arrived, after +many delays due to the weariness of the troops, on the 19th. +A day of irregular fighting followed, everywhere to the advantage +of the defenders. Napoleon, fighting against time, ordered a +fresh attack on the 20th, and only desisted when it became +evident that the army was exhausted, and, in particular, when +Sérurier reported frankly that without bread the soldiers would +not march. The delay thus imposed, however, enabled him to +clear the “cannon-road” of all vehicles, and to bring up the +Dego detachment to replace Masséna in the valley of the western +Bormida, the latter coming in to the main army. Further, +part at any rate of the convoy service was transferred still +farther westward to the line Albenga-Garessio-Ceva. Nelson’s +fleet, that had so powerfully contributed to force the French +inland, was becoming less and less innocuous. If leadership and +force of character could overcome internal friction, all the +success he had hoped for was now within the young commander’s +grasp.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four thousand men, for the first time with a due +proportion of cavalry and artillery, were now disposed along +Colli’s front and beyond his right flank. Colli, outnumbered +by two to one and threatened with envelopment, +<span class="sidenote">Mondovi.</span> +decided once more to retreat, and the Republicans +occupied the Cursaglia lines on the morning of the 21st without +firing a shot. But Colli halted again at Vico, half-way to +Mondovi (in order, it is said, to protect the evacuation of a +small magazine he had there), and while he was in this unfavourable +situation the pursuers came on with true Republican +swiftness, lapped round his flanks and crushed him. A few +days later (27th April), the armistice of Cherasco put an end +to the campaign before the Austrians moved a single battalion +to his assistance.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The interest of the campaign being above all Napoleonic, its moral +must be found by discovering the “Napoleon touch” that differentiated +it from other Revolutionary campaigns. A great +deal is common to all, on both sides. The Austrians +<span class="sidenote">The “Napoleon touch.”</span> +and Sardinians worked together at least as effectively as +the Austrians, Prussians, British and Dutch in the Netherlands. +Revolutionary energy was common to the Army of Italy and +to the Army of the North. Why, therefore, when the war dragged on +from one campaign to another in the great plains of the Meuse and +Rhine countries, did Napoleon bring about so swift a decision in these +cramped valleys? The answer is to be found partly in the exigencies +of the supply service, but still more in Napoleon’s own personality +and the strategy born of it. The first, as we have seen, was at +the end of its resources when Beaulieu placed himself across the +Genoa road. Action of some sort was the plain alternative to +starvation, and at this point Napoleon’s personality intervened. +He would have no quarter-rations on the Riviera, but plenty and to +spare beyond the mountains. If there were many thousand soldiers +who marched unarmed and shoeless in the ranks, it was towards “the +Promised Land” that he led them. He looked always to the end, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>188</span> +met each day as if with full expectation of attaining it before sunset. +Strategical conditions and “new French” methods of war did not +save Bonaparte in the two crises—the Dego rout and the sullen halt +of the army at San Michele—but the personality which made the +soldiers, on the way to Montenotte, march barefoot past a wagon-load +of new boots.</p> + +<p>We have said that Napoleon’s strategy was the result of this personal +magnetism. Later critics evolved from his success the theory +of “interior lines,” and then accounted for it by applying the +criterion they had evolved. Actually, the form in which the will to +conquer found expression was in many important respects old. +What, therefore, in the theory or its application was the product of +Napoleon’s own genius and will-power? A comparison with Souham’s +campaign of Tourcoing will enable us to answer this question. To +begin with, Souham found himself midway between Coburg and Clerfayt +almost by accident, and his utilization of the advantages of his +position was an expedient for the given case. Napoleon, however, +placed himself <i>deliberately</i> and by fighting his way thither, in an +analogous situation at Carcare and Cairo. Military opinion of the +time considered it dangerous, as indeed it was, for no theory can alter +the fact that had not Napoleon made his men fight harder and march +farther than usual, he would have been destroyed. The effective +play of forces on interior lines depends on the two conditions that +the outer enemies are not so near together as to give no time for the +inner mass to defeat one before the arrival of the other, and that +they are not so far apart that before one can be brought to action +the other has inflicted serious damage elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Neither condition was fully met at any time in the Montenotte +campaign. On the 11th Napoleon knew that the attack on Voltri +had been made by a part only of the Austrian forces, yet he flung +his own masses on Montenotte. On the 13th he thought that +Beaulieu’s main body was at Dego and Colli’s at Millesimo, and on +this assumption had to exact the most extraordinary efforts from +Augereau’s troops at Cossaria. On the 19th and 20th he tried to +exclude the risks of the Austrians’ intervention, and with this the +chances of a victory over them to follow his victory over Colli, by +transferring the centre of gravity of his army to Ceva and Garessio, +and fighting it out with Colli alone.</p> + +<p>It was not, in fact, to gain a position on interior lines—with respect +to <i>two</i> opponents—that Napoleon pushed his army to Carcare. +Before the campaign began he hoped by using the “cannon-road” +to destroy the Piedmontese <i>before the Austrians were in existence +at all</i> as an army. But on the news from Voltri and Monte Legino +he swiftly “concentrated fire, made the breach, and broke the +equilibrium” at the spot where the interests and forces of the two +Allies converged and diverged. The hypothesis in the first case was +that the Austrians were practically non-existent, and the whole +object in the second was to breach the now connected front of the +Allies (“strategic penetration”) and to cause them to break up into +two separate systems. More, having made the breach, he had the +choice (which he had not before) of attacking <i>either</i> the Austrians or +the Sardinians, as every critic has pointed out. Indeed the Austrians +offered by far the better target. But he neither wanted nor used +the new alternative. His purpose was to crush Piedmont. “My +enemies saw too much at once,” said Napoleon. Singleness of aim +and of purpose, the product of clear thinking and of “personality,” +was the foundation-stone of the new form of strategy.</p> + +<p>In the course of subduing the Sardinians, Napoleon found himself +placed on interior lines between two hostile masses, and another new +idea, that of “relative superiority.” reveals itself. Whereas Souham +had been in superior force (90,000 against 70,000), Napoleon (40,000 +against 50,000) was not, and yet the Army of Italy was always placed +in a position of relative superiority (at first about 3 to 2 and ultimately +2 to 1) to the immediate antagonist. “The essence of +strategy,” said Napoleon in 1797, “is, with a weaker army, always +to have more force at the crucial point than the enemy. But this +art is taught neither by books nor by practice; it is a matter of +tact.” In this he expressed the result of his victories on his own +mind rather than a preconceived formula which produced those +victories. But the idea, though undefined, and the method of +practice, though imperfectly worked out, were in his mind from the +first. As soon as he had made the breach, he widened it by pushing +out Masséna and Laharpe on the one hand and Augereau on the +other. This is mere common sense. But immediately afterwards, +though preparing to throw all available forces against Colli, he posted +Masséna and Laharpe at Dego to guard, not like Vandamme on the +Lys against a real and pressing enemy, but against a <i>possibility</i>, +and he only diminished the strength and altered the position of this +containing detachment in proportion as the Austrian danger +dwindled. Later in his career he defined this offensive-defensive +system as “having all possible strength at the decisive point,” +and “being nowhere vulnerable,” and the art of reconciling these +two requirements, in each case as it arose, was always the principal +secret of his generalship. At first his precautions (judged by events +<span class="sidenote">Relative superiority.</span> +and not by the probabilities of the moment) were excessive, +and the offensive mass small. But the latter was handled +by a general untroubled by multiple aims and anxieties, +and if such self-confidence was equivalent to 10,000 +men on the battlefield, it was legitimate to detach 10,000 men to +secure it. These 10,000 were posted 8 m. out on the dangerous +flank, not almost back to back with the main body as Vandamme +had been,<a name="fa9a" id="fa9a" href="#ft9a"><span class="sp">9</span></a> and although this distance was but little compared to +those of his later campaigns, when he employed small armies for the +same purpose, it sufficed in this difficult mountain country, where +the covering force enjoyed the advantage of strong positions. +Of course, if Colli had been better concentrated, or if Beaulieu had +been more active, the calculated proportions between covering force +and main body might have proved fallacious, and the system on +which Napoleon’s relative superiority rested might have broken +down. But the point is that such a system, however rough its first +model, had been imagined and put into practice.</p> + +<p>This was Napoleon’s individual art of war, as raiding bakeries and +cutting communications were Beaulieu’s speciality. Napoleon made +the art into a science, and in our own time, with modern conditions +of effective, armament and communications, it is more than possible +that Moreaus and Jourdans will prove able to practise it with success. +But in the old conditions it required a Napoleon. “Strategy,” said +Moltke, “is a system of expedients.” But it was the intense personal +force, as well as the genius, of Napoleon that forged these expedients +into a <i>system</i>.</p> +</div> + +<p>The first phase of the campaign satisfactorily settled, Napoleon +was free to turn his attention to the “arch-enemy” to whom he +was now considerably superior in numbers (35,000 to 25,000). +The day after the signature of the armistice of Cherasco he +began preparing for a new advance and also for the rôle of +arbiter of the destinies of Italy. Many whispers there were, +even in his own army, as to the dangers of passing on without +“revolutionizing” aristocratic Genoa and monarchical Piedmont, +and of bringing Venice, the pope and the Italian princes into the +field against the French. But Bonaparte, flushed with victory, +and better informed than the malcontents of the real condition +of Italy, never hesitated. His first object was to drive +out Beaulieu, his second to push through Tirol, and his only +serious restriction the chance that the armistice with Piedmont +would not result in a definitive treaty. Beaulieu had fallen back +into Lombardy, and now bordered the Po right and left of +Valenza. To achieve further progress, Napoleon had first to +cross that river, and the point and method of crossing was the +immediate problem, a problem the more difficult as Napoleon +had no bridge train and could only make use of such existing +bridges as he could seize intact.<a name="fa10a" id="fa10a" href="#ft10a"><span class="sp">10</span></a> If he crossed above Valenza, +he would be confronted by one river-line after another, on one +of which at least Beaulieu would probably stand to fight. But +quite apart from the immediate problem, Napoleon’s intention +was less to beat the Austrians than to dislodge them. He needed +a foothold in Lombardy which would make him independent of, +and even a menace to, Piedmont. If this were assured, he could +for a few weeks entirely ignore his communications with France +and strike out against Beaulieu, dethrone the king of Sardinia, +or revolutionize Parma, Modena and the papal states according +to circumstances.</p> + +<p>Milan, therefore, was his objective, and Tortona-Piacenza his +route thither. To give himself every chance, he had stipulated +with the Piedmontese authorities for the right of +passing at Valenza, and he had the satisfaction of +<span class="sidenote">Piacenza.</span> +seeing Beaulieu fall into the trap and concentrate opposite that +part of the river. The French meantime had moved to the region +Alessandria-Tortona. Thence on the 6th of May Bonaparte, +with a picked body of troops, set out for a forced march on +Piacenza, and that night the advanced guard was 30 m. on the +way, at Castel San Giovanni, and Laharpe’s and the cavalry +divisions at Stradella, 10 m. behind them. Augereau was at +Broni, Masséna at Sale and Sérurier near Valenza, the whole +forming a rapidly extending fan, 50 m. from point to point. +If the Piacenza detachment succeeded in crossing, the army was +to follow rapidly in its track. If, on the other hand, Beaulieu fell +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>189</span> +back to oppose the advanced guard, the Valenza divisions would +take advantage of his absence to cross there. In either case, be it +observed, the Austrians were to be <i>evaded</i>, not brought to action.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 7th, the swift advanced guard under +General Dallemagne crossed at Piacenza,<a name="fa11a" id="fa11a" href="#ft11a"><span class="sp">11</span></a> and, hearing of this, +Bonaparte ordered every division except Sérurier’s thither with +all possible speed. In the exultation of the moment he mocked +at Beaulieu’s incapacity, but the old Austrian was already on +the alert. This game of manœuvres he understood; already +one of his divisions had arrived in close proximity to Dallemagne +and the others were marching eastward by all available roads. +It was not until the 8th that the French, after a series of partial +encounters, were securely established on the left bank of the Po, +and Beaulieu had given up the idea of forcing their most advanced +troops to accept battle at a disadvantage. The success of +the French was due less to their plan than to their mobility, +which enabled them first to pass the river before the Austrians +(who had actually started a day in advance of them) put in an +appearance, and afterwards to be in superior numbers at each +point of contact. But the episode was destined after all to +culminate in a great event, which Napoleon himself indicated +as the turning-point of his life. “Vendémiaire and even Montenotte +did not make me think myself a superior being. It was +after Lodi that the idea came to me.... That first kindled the +spark of boundless ambition.”</p> + +<p>The idea of a battle having been given up, Beaulieu retired to +the Adda, and most of his troops were safely beyond it before the +French arrived near Lodi, but he felt it necessary to +leave a strong rearguard on the river opposite that +<span class="sidenote">Lodi.</span> +place to cover the reassembly of his columns after their scattered +march. On the afternoon of the 10th of May, Bonaparte, with +Dallemagne, Masséna and Augereau, came up and seized the +town. But 200 yds. of open ground had to be passed from the +town gate to the bridge, and the bridge itself was another 250 +in length. A few hundred yards beyond it stood the Austrians, +9000 strong with 14 guns. Napoleon brought up all his guns +to prevent the enemy from destroying the bridge. Then sending +all his cavalry to turn the enemy’s right by a ford above the +town, he waited two hours, employing the time in cannonading +the Austrian lines, resting his advanced infantry and closing +up Masséna’s and Augereau’s divisions. Finally he gave the +order to Dallemagne’s 4000 grenadiers, who were drawn up +under cover of the town wall, to rush the bridge. As the column, +not more than thirty men broad, made its appearance, it was +met by the concentrated fire of the Austrian guns, and half +way across the bridge it checked, but Bonaparte himself and +Masséna rushed forward, the courage of the soldiers revived, +and, while some jumped off the bridge and scrambled forward +in the shallow water, the remainder stormed on, passed through +the guns and drove back the infantry. This was, in bare outline, +the astounding passage of the Bridge of Lodi. It was not till +after the battle that Napoleon realized that only a rearguard +was in front of him. When he launched his 4000 grenadiers +he thought that on the other side there were four or five times +that number of the enemy. No wonder, then, that after the +event he recognized in himself the flash of genius, the courage +to risk everything, and the “tact” which, independent of, +and indeed contrary to all reasoned calculations, told him that +the moment had come for “breaking the equilibrium.” Lodi +was a tactical success in the highest sense, in that the principles +of his tactics rested on psychology—on the “sublime” part +of the art of war as Saxe had called it long ago. The spirit produced +the form, and Lodi was the prototype of the Napoleonic +battle—contact, manœuvre, preparation, and finally the well-timed, +massed and unhesitating assault. The absence of strategical +results mattered little. Many months elapsed before this +bold assertion of superiority ceased to decide the battles of +France and Austria.</p> + +<p>Next day, still under the vivid tactical impressions of the +Bridge of Lodi, he postponed his occupation of the Milanese +and set off in pursuit of Beaulieu, but the latter was +now out of reach, and during the next few days the +<span class="sidenote">Milan.</span> +French divisions were installed at various points in the area +Pavia-Milan-Pizzighetone, facing outwards in all dangerous +directions, with a central reserve at Milan. Thus secured, +Bonaparte turned his attention to political and military administration. +This took the form of exacting from the neighbouring +princes money, supplies and objects of art, and the once +famished Army of Italy revelled in its opportunity. Now, however, +the Directory, suspicious of the too successful and too +sanguine young general, ordered him to turn over the command +in Upper Italy to Kellermann, and to take an expeditionary +corps himself into the heart of the Peninsula, there to preach +the Republic and the overthrow of princes. Napoleon absolutely +refused, and offered his resignation. In the end (partly by +bribery) he prevailed, but the incident reawakened his desire +to close with Beaulieu. This indeed he could now do with a +free hand, since not only had the Milanese been effectively +occupied, but also the treaty with Sardinia had been ratified.</p> + +<p>But no sooner had he resumed the advance than it was +interrupted by a rising of the peasantry in his rear. The exactions +of the French had in a few days generated sparks of discontent +which it was easy for the priests and the nobles to fan +into open flames. Milan and Pavia as well as the countryside +broke into insurrection, and at the latter place the mob forced +the French commandant to surrender. Bonaparte acted +swiftly and ruthlessly. Bringing back a small portion of the +army with him, he punished Milan on the 25th, sacked and +burned Binasco on the 26th, and on the evening of the latter +day, while his cavalry swept the open country, he broke his +way into Pavia with 1500 men and beat down all resistance. +Napoleon’s cruelty was never purposeless. He deported several +scores of hostages to France, executed most of the mob leaders, +and shot the French officer who had surrendered. In addition, +he gave his 1500 men three hours’ leave to pillage. Then, as +swiftly as they had come, they returned to the army on the +Oglio. From this river Napoleon advanced to the banks of the +Mincio, where the remainder of the Italian campaign was fought +out, both sides contemptuously disregarding Venetian neutrality.</p> + +<p>It centred on the fortress of Mantua, which Beaulieu, too weak +to keep the field, and dislodged from the Mincio in the action of +Borghetto (May 30), strongly garrisoned before retiring into +Tirol. Beaulieu was soon afterwards replaced by Dagobert +Siegmund, count von Wurmser (b. 1724), who brought considerable +reinforcements from Germany.</p> + +<p>At this point, mindful of the narrow escape he had had of +losing his command, Bonaparte thought it well to begin the +resettlement of Italy. The scheme for co-operating with Moreau +on the Danube was indefinitely postponed, and the Army of +Italy (now reinforced from the Army of the Alps and counting +42,000 effectives) was again disposed in a protective “zone of +manœuvre,” with a strong central reserve. Over 8000 men, +however, garrisoned the fortresses of Piedmont and Lombardy, +and the effective blockade of Mantua and political expeditions +into the heart of the Peninsula soon used up the whole of this +reserve.</p> + +<p>Moreover, no siege artillery was available until the Austrians +in the citadel of Milan capitulated, and thus it was not till +the 18th of July that the first parallel was begun. Almost at the +same moment Wurmser began his advance from Trent with +55,000 men to relieve Mantua.</p> + +<p>The protective system on which his attack would fall in the +first instance was now as follows:—Augereau (6000) about +Legnago, Despinoy (8000) south-east of Verona, +Masséna (13,000) at Verona and Peschiera, with +<span class="sidenote">Siege of Mantua.</span> +outposts on the Monte Baldo and at La Corona, +Sauret (4500) at Salo and Gavardo. Sérurier (12,000) was +besieging Mantua, and the only central reserve was the cavalry +(2000) under Kilmaine. The main road to Milan passed by +Brescia. Sauret’s brigade, therefore, was practically a detached +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>190</span> +post on the line of communication, and on the main defensive +front less than 30,000 men were disposed at various points +between La Corona and Legnago (30 m. apart), and at a distance +of 15 to 20 m. from Mantua. The strength of such a disposition +depended on the fighting power and handiness of the troops, +who in each case would be called upon to act as a rearguard to +gain time. Yet the lie of the country scarcely permitted a closer +grouping, unless indeed Bonaparte fell back on the old-time +device of a “circumvallation,” and shut himself up, with the +supplies necessary for the calculated duration of the siege, in an +impregnable ring of earthworks round Mantua. This, however, +he could not have done even if he had wished, for the wave of +revolt radiating from Milan had made accumulations of food +impossible, and the lakes above and below the fortress, besides +being extremely unhealthy, would have extended the perimeter +of the circumvallation so greatly that the available forces would +not suffice to man it. It was not in this, but in the absence of an +important central reserve that Bonaparte’s disposition is open to +criticism, which indeed could impugn the scheme in its entirety, +as overtaxing the available resources, more easily than it could +attack its details.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:786px; height:571px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img190.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p class="pt2">If Bonaparte has occasionally been criticized for his defensive +measures, Wurmser’s attack procedure has received almost universal +condemnation, as to the justice of which it may be pointed out<a name="fa12a" id="fa12a" href="#ft12a"><span class="sp">12</span></a> +that the object of the expedition was not to win a battle by falling +on the disunited French with a well-concentrated army, but to overpower +one, any one, of the corps covering the siege, and to press +straight forward to the relief of Mantua, <i>i.e.</i> to the destruction of +Bonaparte’s batteries and the levelling of his trench work. The old +principle that a battle was a grave event of doubtful issue was +reinforced in the actual case by Beaulieu’s late experiences of French +élan, and as a temporary victory at one point would suffice for the +purpose in hand, there was every incentive to multiply the points of +contact. The soundness of Wurmser’s plan was proved by the event. +New ideas and new forces, undiscernible to a man of seventy-two +years of age, obliterated his achievement by surpassing it, but such +as it was—a limited use of force for a limited object—the venture +undeniably succeeded.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Austrians formed three corps, one (Quasdanovich, 18,000 +men) marching round the west side of the Lake of Garda on +Gavardo, Salo and the Brescia road, the second (under Wurmser, +about 30,000) moving directly down the Adige, and the third +(Davidovich, 6000) making a détour by the Brenta valley +and heading for Verona by Vicenza.</p> + +<p>On the 29th Quasdanovich attacked Sauret at Salo, drove +him towards Desenzano, and pushed on to Gavardo and thence +into Brescia. Wurmser expelled Masséna’s advanced guard +from La Corona, and captured in succession the Monte Baldo +and Rivoli posts. The Brenta column approached Verona with +little or no fighting. News of this column led Napoleon early in +the day to close up Despinoy, Masséna and Kilmaine at Castelnuovo, +and to order Augereau from Legnago to advance on +Montebello (19 m. east of Verona) against Davidovich’s left +rear. But after these orders had been despatched came the news +of Sauret’s defeat, and this moment was one of the most anxious +in Napoleon’s career. He could not make up his mind to give up +the siege of Mantua, but he hurried Augereau back to the Mincio, +and sent order after order to the officers on the lines of communication +to send all convoys by the Cremona instead of by the +Brescia road. More, he had the baggage, the treasure and the +sick set in motion at once for Marcaria, and wrote to Sérurier +a despatch which included the +words “perhaps we shall recover +ourselves ... but I must take +serious measures for a retreat.” +On the 30th he wrote: “The +enemy have broken through our +line in three places ... Sauret +has evacuated Salo ... and the +enemy has captured Brescia. +You see that our communications +with Milan and Verona are cut.” +The reports that came to him +during the morning of the 30th +enabled him to place the main +body of the enemy opposite +Masséna, and this, without in the +least alleviating the gravity of +the situation, helped to make his +course less doubtful. Augereau +was ordered to hold the line of +the Molinella, in case Davidovich’s +attack, the least-known +factor, should after all prove to +be serious; Masséna to reconnoitre +a road from Peschiera +through Castiglione towards +Orzinovi, and to stand fast at +Castelnuovo opposite Wurmser +as long as he could. Sauret +and Despinoy were concentrated +at Desenzano with orders on the 31st to clear the main line of +retreat and to recapture Brescia. The Austrian movements were +merely the continuation of those of the 29th. Quasdanovich +wheeled inwards, his right finally resting on Montechiaro and +his left on Salo. Wurmser drove back Masséna to the west side +of the Mincio. Davidovich made a slight advance.</p> + +<p>In the late evening Bonaparte held a council of war at Roverbella. +The proceedings of this council are unknown, but it at +any rate enabled Napoleon to see clearly and to act. +Hitherto he had been covering the siege of Mantua with +<span class="sidenote">Relief of Mantua.</span> +various detachments, the defeat of any one of which +might be fatal to the enterprise. Thus, when he had lost his +main line of retreat, he could assemble no more than 8000 men +at Desenzano to win it back. Now, however, he made up his +mind that the siege could not be continued, and bitter as the +decision must have been, it gave him freedom. At this moment +of crisis the instincts of the great captain came into play, and +showed the way to a victory that would more than counterbalance +the now inevitable failure. Sérurier was ordered to +spike the 140 siege guns that had been so welcome a few days +before, and, after sending part of his force to Augereau, to +establish himself with the rest at Marcaria on the Cremona road. +The field forces were to be used on interior lines. On the 31st +Sauret, Despinoy, Augereau and Kilmaine advanced westward +against Quasdanovich. The first two found the Austrians at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>191</span> +Salo and Lonato and drove them back, while with Augereau +and the cavalry Bonaparte himself made a forced march on +Brescia, never halting night or day till he reached the town and +recovered his depots. Meantime Sérurier had retired (night +of July 31), Masséna had gradually drawn in towards Lonato, +and Wurmser’s advanced guard triumphantly entered the +fortress (August 1).</p> + +<p>The Austrian general now formed the plan of crushing +Bonaparte between Quasdanovich and his own main body. +But meantime Quasdanovich had evacuated Brescia under the +threat of Bonaparte’s advance and was now fighting a long +irregular action with Despinoy and Sauret about Gavardo and +Salo, and Bonaparte, having missed his expected target, had +brought Augereau by another severe march back to Montechiaro +on the Chiese. Masséna was now assembled between Lonato +and Ponte San Marco, and Sérurier was retiring quietly on +Marcaria. Wurmser’s main body, weakened by the detachment +sent to Mantua, crossed the Mincio about Valeggio and Goito +on the 2nd, and penetrated as far as Castiglione, whence Masséna’s +rearguard was expelled. But a renewed advance of Quasdanovich, +ordered by Wurmser, which drove Sauret and Despinoy +<span class="sidenote">Lonato and Castiglione.</span> +back on Brescia and Lonato, in the end only placed +a strong detachment of the Austrians within striking +distance of Masséna, who on the 3rd attacked it, +front to front, and by sheer fighting destroyed it, +while at the same time Augereau recaptured Castiglione from +Wurmser. On the 4th Sauret and Despinoy pressed back +Quasdanovich beyond Salo and Gavardo. One of the Austrian +columns, finding itself isolated and unable to retreat with the +others, turned back to break its way through to Wurmser, and +was annihilated by Masséna in the neighbourhood of Lonato. +On this day Augereau fought his way towards Solferino, and +Wurmser, thinking rightly or wrongly that he could not now +retire to the Mincio without a battle, drew up his whole force, +close on 30,000 men, in the plain between Solferino and Medole. +The finale may be described in very few words. Bonaparte, +convinced that no more was to be feared from Quasdanovich, +and seeing that Wurmser meant to fight, called in Despinoy’s +division to the main body and sent orders to Sérurier, then far +distant on the Cremona road, to march against the left flank of +the Austrians. On the 5th the battle of Castiglione was fought. +Closely contested in the first hours of the frontal attack till +Sérurier’s arrival decided the day, it ended in the retreat of the +Austrians over the Mincio and into Tirol whence they had +come.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Thus the new way had failed to keep back Wurmser, and the +old had failed to crush Napoleon. Each was the result of its own +conditions. In former wars a commander threatened as Napoleon +was, would have fallen back at once to the Adda, abandoning the +siege in such good time that he would have been able to bring off his +siege artillery. Instead of this Bonaparte hesitated long enough +to lose it, which, according to accepted canons was a waste, and held +his ground, which was, by the same rules, sheer madness. But +Revolutionary discipline was not firm enough to stand a retreat. +Once it turned back, the army would have streamed away to Milan +and perhaps to the Alps (cf. 1799), and the only alternative to complete +dissolution therefore was fighting.</p> + +<p>As to the manner of this fighting, even the principle of “relative +superiority” failed him so long as he was endeavouring to cover +the siege and again when his chief care was to protect his new line of +retreat and to clear his old. In this period, viz. up to his return +from Brescia on the 2nd of August, the only “mass” he collected +delivered a blow in the air, while the covering detachments had to +fight hard for bare existence. Once released from its trammels, +the Napoleonic principle had fair play. He stood between Wurmser +and Quasdanovich, ready to fight either or both. The latter was +crushed, thanks to local superiority and the resolute leading of +Masséna, but at Castiglione Wurmser actually outnumbered his +opponent till the last of Napoleon’s precautionary dispositions had +been given up, and Sérurier brought back from the “alternative line +of retreat” to the battlefield. The moral is, again, that it was not the +mere fact of being on interior lines that gave Napoleon the victory, +but his “tact,” his fine appreciation of the chances in his favour, +measured in terms of time, space, attacking force and containing +power. All these factors were greatly influenced by the ground, which +favoured the swarms and columns of the French and deprived +the brilliant Austrian cavalry of its power to act. But of far +greater importance was the mobility that Napoleon’s personal +force imparted to the French. Napoleon himself rode five horses +to death in three days, and Augereau’s division marched from +Roverbella to Brescia and back to Montechiaro, a total distance of +nearly 50 m., in about thirty-six hours. This indeed was the foundation +of his “relative superiority,” for every hour saved in the time +of marching meant more freedom to destroy one corps before the +rest could overwhelm the covering detachments and come to its +assistance.</p> + +<p>Wurmser’s plan for the relief of Mantua, suited to its purpose, +succeeded. But when he made his objective the French field army, +he had to take his own army as he found it, disposed for an altogether +different purpose. A properly, combined attack of convergent +columns framed <i>ab initio</i> by a good staff officer, such as Mack, +might indeed have given good results. But the success of such a +plan depends principally on the assailant’s original possession of the +initiative, and not on the chances of his being able to win it over to +his own side when operations, as here, are already in progress. +When the time came to improvise such a plan, the initiative had +passed over to Napoleon, and the plan was foredoomed.</p> +</div> + +<p>By the end of the second week in August the blockade of +Mantua had been resumed, without siege guns. But still under +the impression of a great victory gained, Bonaparte was planning +a long forward stride. He thought that by advancing past +Mantua directly on Trieste and thence onwards to the Semmering +he could impose a peace on the emperor. The Directory, however, +which had by now focussed its attention on the German campaign, +ordered him to pass through Tirol and to co-operate with +Moreau, and this plan, Bonaparte, though protesting against an +Alpine venture being made so late in the year, prepared to execute, +drawing in reinforcements and collecting great quantities of +supplies in boats on the Adige and Lake Garda. Wurmser was +thought to have posted his main body near Trent, and to have +detached one division to Bassano “to cover Trieste.” The French +advanced northward on the 2nd, in three disconnected columns +(precisely as Wurmser had done in the reverse direction at the +end of July)—Masséna (13,000) from Rivoli to Ala, Augereau +(9000) from Verona by hill roads, keeping on his right rear, +Vaubois (11,000) round the Lake of Garda by Riva and Torbole. +Sahuguet’s division (8000) remained before Mantua. The +French divisions successfully combined and drove the enemy +before them to Trent.</p> + +<p>There, however, they missed their target. Wurmser had already +drawn over the bulk of his army (22,000) into the Val Sugana, +whence, with the Bassano division as his advanced guard, he +intended once more to relieve Mantua, while Davidovich with +13,000 (excluding detachments) was to hold Tirol against any +attempt of Bonaparte to join forces with Moreau.</p> + +<p>Thus Austria was preparing to hazard a second (as in the +event she hazarded a third and a fourth) highly trained and +expensive professional army in the struggle for the preservation +of a fortress, and we must conclude that there were weighty +reasons which actuated so notoriously cautious a body as the +Council of War in making this unconditional venture. While +Mantua stood, Napoleon, for all his energy and sanguineness, +could not press forward into Friuli and Carniola, and immunity +from a Republican visitation was above all else important for +the Vienna statesmen, governing as they did more or less discontented +and heterogeneous populations that had not felt the +pressure of war for a century and more. The Austrians, so far +as is known, desired no more than to hold their own. They no +longer possessed the superiority of <i>moral</i> that guarantees victory +to one side when both are materially equal. There was therefore +nothing to be gained, commensurate with the risk involved, by +fighting a battle in the open field. <i>In Italien siegt nicht die +Kavallerie</i> was an old saying in the Austrian army, and therefore +the Austrians could not hope to win a victory of the first magnitude. +The only practicable alternative was to strengthen +Mantua as opportunities offered themselves, and to prolong +the passive resistance as much as possible. Napoleon’s own +practice in providing for secondary theatres of war was to +economize forces and to delay a decision, and the fault of the +Austrians, viewed from a purely military standpoint, was that +they squandered, instead of economizing, their forces to gain +time. If we neglect pure theory, and regard strategy as the +handmaiden of statesmanship—which fundamentally it is—we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id="page192"></a>192</span> +cannot condemn the Vienna authorities unless it be first proved +that they grossly exaggerated the possible results of Bonaparte’s +threatened irruption. And if their capacity for judging the +political situation be admitted, it naturally follows that their +object was to preserve Mantua <i>at all costs</i>—which object Wurmser, +though invariably defeated in action, did in fact accomplish.</p> + +<p>When Masséna entered Trent on the morning of the 5th of +September, Napoleon became aware that the force in his front +was a mere detachment, and news soon came in that +Wurmser was in the Val Sugana about Primolano and +<span class="sidenote">Bassano.</span> +at Bassano. This move he supposed to be intended to cover +Trieste, being influenced by his own hopes of advancing in that +direction, and underestimating the importance, to the Austrians, +of preserving Mantua. He therefore informed the Directory +that he could not proceed with the Tirol scheme, and spent one +more day in driving Davidovich well away from Trent. Then, +leaving Vaubois to watch him, Napoleon marched Augereau and +Masséna, with a rapidity he scarcely ever surpassed, into the +Val Sugana. Wurmser’s rearguard was attacked and defeated +again and again, and Wurmser himself felt compelled to stand +and fight, in the hope of checking the pursuit before going +forward into the plains. Half his army had already reached +Montebello on the Verona road, and with the rear half he posted +himself at Bassano, where on the 8th he was attacked and +defeated with heavy losses. Then began a strategic pursuit or +general chase, and in this the mobility of the French should +have finished the work so well begun by their tactics.</p> + +<p>But Napoleon directed the pursuers so as to cut off Wurmser +from Trieste, not from Mantua. Masséna followed up the +Austrians to Vicenza, while Augereau hurried towards Padua, +and it was not until late on the 9th that Bonaparte realized that +his opponent was heading for Mantua via Legnago. On the 10th +Masséna crossed the Adige at Ronco, while Augereau from +Padua reached Montagnara. Sahuguet from Mantua and +Kilmaine from Verona joined forces at Castellaro on the 11th, +with orders to interpose between Wurmser and the fortress. +Wurmser meantime had halted for a day at Legnago, to restore +order, and had then resumed his march. It was almost too late, +for in the evening, after having to push aside the head of Masséna’s +column at Cerea, he had only reached Nogara, some miles short of +Castellaro, and close upon his rear was Augereau, who reached +Legnago that night. On the 12th, eluding Sahuguet by a detour +to the southward, he reached Mantua, with all the columns of +the French, weary as most of them were, in hot pursuit. After +an attempt to keep the open field, defeated in a general action +on the 15th, the relieving force was merged in the garrison, now +some 28,000 in all. So ended the episode of Bassano, the most +brilliant feature of which as usual was the marching power of +the French infantry. This time it sufficed to redeem even +strategical misconceptions and misdirections. Between the +5th and the 11th, besides fighting three actions, Masséna had +marched 100 m. and Augereau 114.</p> + +<p>Feldzeugmeister Alvintzi was now appointed to command a +new army of relief. This time the mere distribution of the +troops imposed a concentric advance of separate columns, for +practically the whole of the fresh forces available were in Carniola, +the Military Frontier, &c., while Davidovich was still in Tirol. +Alvintzi’s intention was to assemble his new army (29,000) in +Friuli, and to move on Bassano, which was to be occupied on +the 4th of November. Meantime Davidovich (18,000) was to +capture Trent, and the two columns were to connect by the Val +Sugana. All being well, Alvintzi and Davidovich, still separate, +were then to converge on the Adige between Verona and Legnago. +Wurmser was to co-operate by vigorous sorties. At this time +Napoleon’s protective system was as follows: Kilmaine (9000) +investing Mantua, Vaubois (10,000) at Trent, and Masséna +(9000) at Bassano and Treviso, Augereau (9000) and Macquard +(3000) at Verona and Villafranca constituting, for the first time +in these operations, important mobile reserves. Hearing of +Alvintzi’s approach in good time, he meant first to drive back +Davidovich, then with Augereau, Masséna, Macquard and 3000 +of Vaubois’s force to fall upon Alvintzi, who, he calculated, +would at this stage have reached Bassano, and finally to send +back a large force through the Val Sugana to attack Davidovich. +This plan practically failed.</p> + +<p>Instead of advancing, Vaubois was driven steadily backward. +By the 6th, Davidovich had fought his way almost to Roveredo, +and Alvintzi had reached Bassano and was there +successfully repelling the attacks of Masséna and +<span class="sidenote">Caldiero.</span> +Augereau. That night Napoleon drew back to Vicenza. On +the 7th Davidovich drove in Vaubois to Corona and Rivoli, +and Alvintzi came within 5 m. of Vicenza. Napoleon watched +carefully for an opportunity to strike out, and on the 8th massed +his troops closely around the central point of Verona. On the +9th, to give himself air, he ordered Masséna to join Vaubois, +and to drive back Davidovich at all costs. But before this order +was executed, reports came in to the effect that Davidovich +had suspended his advance. The 10th and 11th were spent by +both sides in relative inaction, the French waiting on events +and opportunities, the Austrians resting after their prolonged +exertions. Then, on the afternoon of the 11th, being informed +that Alvintzi was approaching, Napoleon decided to attack him. +On the 12th the advanced guard of Alvintzi’s army was furiously +assailed in the position of Caldiero. But the troops in rear came +up rapidly, and by 4 <span class="scs">P.M.</span> the French were defeated all along the +line and in retreat on Verona. Napoleon’s situation was now +indeed precarious. He was on “interior lines,” it is true, but +he had neither the force nor the space necessary for the delivery +of rapid radial blows. Alvintzi was in superior numbers, as the +battle of Caldiero had proved, and at any moment Davidovich, +who had twice Vaubois’s force, might advance to the attack of +Rivoli. The reserves had proved insufficient, and Kilmaine +had to be called up from Mantua, which was thus for the third +time freed from the blockaders. Again the alternatives were +retreat, in whatever order was possible to Republican armies, +and beating the nearest enemy at any sacrifice. Napoleon chose +the latter, though it was not until the evening of the 14th that +he actually issued the fateful order.</p> + +<p>The Austrians, too, had selected the 15th as the date of their +final advance on Verona, Davidovich from the north, Alvintzi +via Zevio from the south. But Napoleon was no longer there; +leaving Vaubois to hold Davidovich as best he might, and +posting only 3000 men in Verona, he had collected the rest of +his small army between Albaro and Ronco. His plan seems to +have been to cross the Adige well in rear of the Austrians, to +march north on to the Verona-Vicenza highway, and there, +supplying himself from their convoys, to fight to the last. On +the 15th he had written to the Directory, “The weakness and +the exhaustion of the army causes me to fear the worst. We are +perhaps on the eve of losing Italy.” In this extremity of danger +the troops passed the Adige in three columns near Ronco and +Albaredo, and marched forward along the dikes, with deep +marshes and pools on either hand. If Napoleon’s intention was +to reach the dry open ground of S. Bonifacio in rear of the +Austrians, it was not realized, for the Austrian army, instead of +being at the gates of Verona, was still between Caldiero and +S. Bonifacio, heading, as we know, for Zevio. Thus Alvintzi +was able, easily and swiftly, to wheel to the south.</p> + +<p>The battle of Arcola almost defies description. The first day +passed in a series of resultless encounters between the heads +of the columns as they met on the dikes. In the +evening Bonaparte withdrew over the Adige, expecting +<span class="sidenote">Arcola.</span> +at every moment to be summoned to Vaubois’s aid. But Davidovich +remained inactive, and on the 16th the French again crossed +the river. Masséna from Ronco advanced on Porcile, driving +the Austrians along the causeway thither, but on the side of +Arcola, Alvintzi had deployed a considerable part of his forces +on the edge of the marshes, within musket shot of the causeway +by which Bonaparte and Augereau had to pass, along the +Austrian front, to reach the bridge of Arcola. In these circumstances +the second day’s battle was more murderous and no +more decisive than the first, and again the French retreated to +Ronco. But Davidovich again stood still, and with incredible +obstinacy Bonaparte ordered a third assault for the 17th, using +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>193</span> +indeed more tactical expedients than before, but calculating +chiefly on the fighting powers of his men and on the exhaustion +of the enemy. Masséna again advanced on Porcile, Robert’s +brigade on Arcola, but the rest, under Augereau, were to pass +the Alpone near its confluence with the Adige, and joining various +small bodies which passed the main stream lower down, to storm +forward on dry ground to Arcola. The Austrians, however, +themselves advanced from Arcola, overwhelmed Robert’s +brigade on the causeway and almost reached Ronco. This was +perhaps the crisis of the battle, for Augereau’s force was now +on the other side of the stream, and Masséna, with his back +to the new danger, was approaching Porcile. But the fire of a +deployed regiment stopped the head of the Austrian column; +Masséna, turning about, cut into its flank on the dike; and +Augereau, gathering force, was approaching Arcola from the +south. The bridge and the village were evacuated soon afterwards, +and Masséna and Augereau began to extend in the plain +beyond. But the Austrians still sullenly resisted. It was at +this moment that Bonaparte secured victory by a mere ruse, +but a ruse which would have been unprofitable and ridiculous +had it not been based on his fine sense of the moral conditions. +Both sides were nearly fought out, and he sent a few trumpeters +to the rear of the Austrian army to sound the charge. They +did so, and in a few minutes the Austrians were streaming back +to S. Bonifacio. This ended the drama of Arcola, which more +than any other episode of these wars, perhaps of any wars in +modern history, centres on the personality of the hero. It is +said that the French fought without spirit on the first day, and +yet on the second and third Bonaparte had so thoroughly imbued +them with his own will to conquer that in the end they prevailed +over an enemy nearly twice their own strength.</p> + +<p>The climax was reached just in time, for on the 17th Vaubois +was completely defeated at Rivoli and withdrew to Peschiera, +leaving the Verona and Mantua roads completely open to +Davidovich. But on the 19th Napoleon turned upon him, and +combining the forces of Vaubois, Masséna and Augereau against +him, drove him back to Trent. Meantime Alvintzi returned +from Vicenza to San Bonifacio and Caldiero (November 21st), +and Bonaparte at once stopped the pursuit of Davidovich. On +the return of the French main body to Verona, Alvintzi finally +withdrew, Wurmser, who had emerged from Mantua on the 23rd, +was driven in again, and this epilogue of the great struggle +came to a feeble end because neither side was now capable of +prolonging the crisis.</p> + +<p>Alvintzi renewed his advance in January 1797 with all the +forces that could be assembled for a last attempt to save Mantua. +At this time 8000 men under Sérurier blockaded Mantua, +Masséna (9000) was at Verona, Joubert (Vaubois’s successor) +at Rivoli with 10,000, Augereau at Legnago with 9000. In +reserve were Rey’s division (4000) between Brescia and Montechiaro, +and Victor’s brigade at Goito and Castelnuovo. On the +other side, Alvintzi had 9000 men under Provera at Padua, +6000 under Bayalič at Bassano, and he himself with 28,000 men +stood in the Tirol about Trent. This time he intended to make +his principal effort on the Rivoli side. Provera was to capture +Legnago on the 9th of January, and Bayalič Verona on the 12th, +while the main army was to deliver its blow against the Rivoli +position on the 13th.</p> + +<p>The first marches of this scheme were duly carried out, and +several days elapsed before Napoleon was able to discern the +direction of the real attack. Augereau fell back, +skirmishing a little, as Provera’s and Bayalič’s advance +<span class="sidenote">Rivoli.</span> +developed. On the 11th, when the latter was nearing Verona, +Alvintzi’s leading troops appeared in front of the Rivoli position. +On the 12th Bayalič with a weak force (he had sent reinforcements +to Alvintzi by the Val Pantena) made an unsuccessful +attack on Verona, Provera, farther south, remaining inactive. +On the 13th Napoleon, still in doubt, launched Masséna’s division +against Bayalič, who was driven back to San Bonifacio; but +at the same time definite news came from Joubert that Alvintzi’s +main army was in front of La Corona. From this point begins +the decisive, though by no means the most intense or dramatic, +struggle of the campaign. Once he felt sure of the situation +Napoleon acted promptly. Joubert was ordered to hold on to +Rivoli at all costs. Rey was brought up by a forced march to +Castelnuovo, where Victor joined him, and ahead of them both +Masséna was hurried on to Rivoli. Napoleon himself joined +Joubert on the night of the 13th. There he saw the watch-fires +of the enemy in a semicircle around him, for Alvintzi, thinking +that he had only to deal with one division, had begun a widespread +enveloping attack. The horns of this attack were as yet +so far distant that Napoleon, instead of extending on an equal +front, only spread out a few regiments to gain an hour or two +and to keep the ground for Masséna and Rey, and on the morning +of January 14th, with 10,000 men in hand against 26,000, he +fell upon the central columns of the enemy as they advanced +up the steep broken slopes of the foreground. The fighting was +severe, but Bonaparte had the advantage. Masséna arrived at +9 <span class="scs">A.M.</span>, and a little later the column of Quasdanovich, which had +moved along the Adige and was now attempting to gain a foothold +on the plateau in rear of Joubert, was crushed by the converging +fire of Joubert’s right brigade and by Masséna’s guns, their rout +being completed by the charge of a handful of cavalry under +Lasalle. The right horn of Alvintzi’s attack, when at last it +swung in upon Napoleon’s rear, was caught between Masséna +and the advancing troops of Rey and annihilated, and even +before this the dispirited Austrians were in full retreat. A last +alarm, caused by the appearance of a French infantry regiment +in their rear (this had crossed the lake in boats from Salo), completed +their demoralization, and though less than 2000 had been +killed and wounded, some 12,000 Austrian prisoners were left +in the hands of the victors. Rivoli was indeed a moral triumph. +After the ordeal of Arcola, the victory of the French was a foregone +conclusion at each point of contact. Napoleon hesitated, +or rather refrained from striking, so long as his information was +incomplete, but he knew now from experience that his covering +detachment, if well led, could not only hold its own without +assistance until it had gained the necessary information, but +could still give the rest of the army time to act upon it. Then, +when the centre of gravity had been ascertained, the French +divisions hurried thither, caught the enemy in the act of manœuvring +and broke them up. And if that confidence in success +which made all this possible needs a special illustration, it may +be found in Napoleon’s sending Murat’s regiment over the lake +to place a mere two thousand bayonets across the line of +retreat of a whole army. Alvintzi’s manœuvre was faulty +neither strategically in the first instance nor tactically as +regards the project of enveloping Joubert on the 14th. It +failed because Joubert and his men were better soldiers than his +own, and because a French division could move twice as fast as +an Austrian, and from these two factors a new form of war was +evolved, the essence of which was that, for a given time and in +a given area, a small force of the French should engage and +hold a much larger force of the enemy.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The remaining operations can be very briefly summarized. +Provera, still advancing on Mantua, joined hands there with Wurmser, +and for a time held Sérurier at a disadvantage. But hearing of this, +Napoleon sent back Masséna from the field of Rivoli, and that general, +with Augereau and Sérurier, not only forced Wurmser to retire again +into the fortress, but compelled Provera to lay down his arms. On +the 2nd of February 1797, after a long and honourable defence, +Mantua, and with it what was left of Wurmser’s army, surrendered.</p> + +<p>The campaign of 1797, which ended the war of the First Coalition, +was the brilliant sequel of these hard-won victories. Austria had +decided to save Mantua at all costs, and had lost her armies in the +attempt, a loss which was not compensated by the “strategic” +victories of the archduke. Thus the Republican “visitation” of +Carinthia and Carniola was one swift march—politically glorious, +if dangerous from a purely military standpoint—of Napoleon’s +army to the Semmering. The archduke, who was called thither +from Germany, could do no more than fight a few rearguard actions, +and make threats against Napoleon’s rear, which the latter, with his +usual “tact,” ignored. On the Rhine, as in 1795 and 1796, the armies +of the Sambre-and-Meuse (Hoche) and the Rhine-and-Moselle +(Moreau) were opposed by the armies of the Lower Rhine (Werneck) +and of the Upper Rhine (Latour). Moreau crossed the river near +Strassburg and fought a series of minor actions. Hoche, like his +predecessors, crossed at Düsseldorf and Neuwied and fought his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>194</span> +way to the Lahn, where for the last time in the history of these wars, +there was an irregular widespread battle. But Hoche, in this his +last campaign, displayed the brilliant energy of his first, and delivered +the “series of incessant blows” that Carnot had urged upon Jourdan +the year before. Werneck was driven with ever-increasing losses +from the lower Lahn to Wetzlar and Giessen. Thence, pressed +hard by the French left wing under Championnet, he retired on the +<span class="sidenote">Leoben.</span> +Nidda, only to find that Hoche’s right had swung completely round +him. Nothing but the news of the armistice of Leoben +saved him from envelopment and surrender. This +general armistice was signed by Bonaparte, on his own authority +and to the intense chagrin of the Directory and of Hoche, on the +18th of April, and was the basis of the peace of Campo Formio.</p> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">Napoleon in Egypt</p> + +<p>Within the scope of this article, yet far more important from its +political and personal than from its general military interest, comes +the expedition of Napoleon to Egypt and its sequel (see also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Egypt</a></span>: +<i>History</i>; <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleon</a></span>, &c.). A very brief summary must here suffice. +Napoleon left Toulon on the 19th of May 1798, at the same time as +his army (40,000 strong in 400 transports) embarked secretly at +various ports. Nelson’s fleet was completely evaded, and, capturing +Malta <i>en route</i>, the armada reached the coast of Egypt on the 1st of +July. The republicans stormed Alexandria on the 2nd. Between +Embabeh and Gizeh, on the left bank of the Nile, 60,000 Mamelukes +were defeated and scattered on the 21st (battle of the Pyramids), +the French for the most part marching and fighting in the chequer +of infantry squares that afterwards became the classical formation +for desert warfare. While his lieutenants pursued the more important +groups of the enemy, Napoleon entered Cairo in triumph, and proceeded +to organize Egypt as a French protectorate. Meantime +Nelson, though too late to head off the expedition, had annihilated +the squadron of Admiral Brueys. This blow severed the army +from the home country, and destroyed all hope of reinforcements. +But to eject the French already in Egypt, military invasion of that +country was necessary. The first attempts at this were made in +September by the Turks as overlords of Egypt. Napoleon—after +suppressing a revolt in Cairo—marched into Syria to meet them, +and captured El Arish and Jaffa (at the latter place the prisoners, +whom he could afford neither to feed, to release, nor to guard, were +shot by his order). But he was brought to a standstill (March 17-May +20) before the half-defensible fortifications of Acre, held by a Turkish +garrison and animated by the leadership of Sir W. Sidney Smith +(<i>q.v.</i>). In May, though meantime a Turkish relieving army had been +severely beaten in the battle of Mount Tabor (April 16, 1799), +Napoleon gave up his enterprise, and returned to Egypt, where he +won a last victory in annihilating at Aboukir, with 6000 of his own +men, a Turkish army 18,000 strong that had landed there (July 25, +1799). With this crowning tactical success to set against the Syrian +reverses, he handed over the command to Kléber and returned to +France (August 22) to ride the storm in a new <i>coup d’état</i>, the “18th +Brumaire.” Kléber, attacked by the English and Turks, concluded +the convention of El Arish (January 27, 1800), whereby he secured +free transport for the army back to France. But this convention +was disavowed by the British government, and Kléber prepared to +hold his ground. On the 20th of March 1800 he thoroughly defeated +the Turkish army at Heliopolis and recovered Cairo, and French +influence was once more in the ascendant in Egypt, when its director +was murdered by a fanatic on the 14th of June, the day of Marengo. +Kléber’s successor, the incompetent Menou, fell an easy victim to the +British expeditionary force under Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1801. +The British forced their way ashore at Aboukir on the 8th of March. +On the 21st, Abercromby won a decisive battle, and himself fell in the +hour of victory (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Alexandria</a></span>: <i>Battle of 1801</i>). His successor, +General Hely Hutchinson, slowly followed up this advantage, and +received the surrender of Cairo in July and of Alexandria in August, +the débris of the French army being given free passage back to France. +Meantime a mixed force of British and native troops from India, +under Sir David Baird, had landed at Kosseir and marched across +the desert to Cairo.</p> +</div> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">The War of the Second Coalition</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1798, while Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition +was in progress, and the Directory was endeavouring at home +to reduce the importance and the predominance of the army +and its leaders, the powers of Europe once more allied themselves, +not now against the principles of the Republic, but against the +treaty of Campo Formio. Russia, Austria, England, Turkey, +Portugal, Naples and the Pope formed the Second Coalition. The +war began with an advance into the Roman States by a worthless +and ill-behaved Neapolitan army (commanded, much against +his will, by Mack), which the French troops under Championnet +destroyed with ease. Championnet then revolutionized Naples. +After this unimportant prelude the curtain rose on a general +European war. The Directory which now had at its command +neither numbers nor enthusiasm, prepared as best it could to +meet the storm. Four armies, numbering only 160,000, were +set on foot, in Holland (Brune, 24,000); on the Upper Rhine +(Jourdan, 46,000); in Switzerland, which had been militarily +occupied in 1798 (Masséna, 30,000); and in upper Italy (Schérer, +60,000). In addition there was Championnet’s army, now +commanded by Macdonald, in southern Italy. All these forces +the Directory ordered, in January and February 1799, to assume +the offensive.</p> + +<p>Jourdan, in the Constance and Schaffhausen region, had only +40,000 men against the archduke Charles’s 80,000, and was soon +brought to a standstill and driven back on Stokach. +The archduke had won these preliminary successes +<span class="sidenote">Stokach.</span> +with seven-eighths of his army acting as one concentrated mass. +But as he had only encountered a portion of Jourdan’s army, he +became uneasy as to his flanks, checked his bold advance, and +ordered a reconnaissance in force. This practically extended +his army while Jourdan was closing his, and thus the French +began the battle of Stokach (March 25) in superior numbers, and +it was not until late in the day that the archduke brought up +sufficient strength (60,000) to win a victory. This was a battle +of the “strategic” type, a widespread straggling combat in +which each side took fifteen hours to inflict a loss of 12% +on the other, and which ended in Jourdan accepting defeat and +drawing off, unpursued by the magnificent Austrian cavalry, +though these counted five times as many sabres as the French.</p> + +<p>The French secondary army in Switzerland was in the hands +of the bold and active Masséna. The forces of both sides in the +Alpine region were, from a military point of view, mere flank +guards to the main armies on the Rhine and the Adige. But +unrest, amounting to civil war, among the Swiss and Grison +peoples tempted both governments to give these flank guards +considerable strength.<a name="fa13a" id="fa13a" href="#ft13a"><span class="sp">13</span></a></p> + +<p>The Austrians in the Vorarlberg and Grisons were under +Hotze, who had 13,000 men at Bregenz, and 7000 commanded +by Auffenberg around Chur, with, between them, +5000 men at Feldkirch and a post of 1000 in the strong +<span class="sidenote">Masséna in Switzerland.</span> +position of the Luziensteig near Mayenfeld. Masséna’s +available force was about 20,000, and he used almost +the whole of it against Auffenberg. The Rhine was crossed +by his principal column near Mayenfeld, and the Luziensteig +stormed (March 6), while a second column from the Zürich side +descended upon Disentis and captured its defenders. In three +days, thanks to Masséna’s energy and the ardent attacking spirit +of his men, Auffenberg’s division was broken up, Oudinot +meanwhile holding off Hotze by a hard-fought combat at +Feldkirch (March 7). But a second attack on Feldkirch made +on the 23rd by Masséna with 15,000 men was repulsed and the +advance of his left wing came to a standstill.</p> + +<p>Behind Auffenberg and Hotze was Bellegarde in Tirol with +some 47,000 men. Most of these were stationed north of Innsbruck +and Landeck, probably as a sort of strategic reserve to +the archduke. The rest, with the assistance of the Tirolese +themselves, were to ward off irruptions from Italy. Here the +French offensive was entrusted to two columns, one from +Masséna’s command under Lecourbe, the other from the Army +of Italy under Dessolle. Simultaneously with Masséna, +Lecourbe marched from Bellinzona with 10,000 men, by the +San Bernadino pass into the Splügen valley, and thence over the +Julier pass into the upper Engadine. A small Austrian force +under Major-General Loudon attacked him near Zernetz, but +was after three days of rapid manœuvres and bold tactics driven +back to Martinsbrück, with considerable losses, especially in +prisoners. But ere long the country people flew to arms, and +Lecourbe found himself between two fires, the levies occupying +Zernetz and Loudon’s regulars Martinsbrück. But though he +had only some 5000 of his original force left, he was not disconcerted, +and, by driving back the levies into the high valleys +whence they had come, and constantly threatening Loudon, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>195</span> +he was able to maintain himself and to wait for Dessolles. The +latter, moving up the Valtelline, by now fought his way to the +Stelvio pass, but beyond it the defile of Tauffers (S.W. of Glurns) +was entrenched by Loudon, who thus occupied a position +midway between the two French columns, while his irregulars +beset all the passes and ways giving access to the Vintschgau and +the lower Engadine. In this situation the French should have +been destroyed in detail. But as usual their speed and dash gave +them the advantage in every manœuvre and at every point of +contact.</p> + +<p>On the 25th Lecourbe and Dessolles attacked Loudon at +Nauders in the Engadine and Tauffers in the Vintschgau respectively. +At Nauders the French passed round +the flanks of the defence by scrambling along the high +<span class="sidenote">Lecourbe and Dessolles in Tirol.</span> +mountain crests adjacent, while at Tauffers the +assailants, only 4500 strong, descended into a deep +ravine, debouched unnoticed in the Austrians’ rear, and captured +6000 men and 16 guns. The Austrian leader with a couple of +companies made his way through Glurns to Nauders, and there, +finding himself headed off by Lecourbe, he took to the mountains. +His corps, like Auffenberg’s, was annihilated.</p> + +<p>This ended the French general offensive. Jourdan had been +defeated by the archduke and forced or induced to retire over the +Rhine. Masséna was at a standstill before the strong position +of Feldkirch, and the Austrians of Hotze were still massed at +Bregenz, but the Grisons were revolutionized, two strong bodies +of Austrians numbering in all about 20,000 men had been +destroyed, and Lecourbe and Dessolles had advanced far into +Tirol. A pause followed. The Austrians in the mountains needed +time to concentrate and to recover from their astonishment. +The archduke fell ill, and the Vienna war council forbade his +army to advance lest Tirol should be “uncovered,” though +Bellegarde and Hotze still disposed of numbers equal to those +of Masséna and Lecourbe. Masséna succeeded Jourdan in general +command on the French side and promptly collected all available +forces of both armies in the hilly non-Alpine country between +Basel, Zürich and Schaffhausen, thereby directly barring the +roads into France (Berne-Neuchâtel-Pontarlier and Basel-Besançon) +which the Austrians appeared to desire to conquer. +The protection of Alsace and the Vosges was left to the fortresses. +There was no suggestion, it would appear, that the Rhine between +Basel and Schaffhausen was a flank position sufficient of itself +to bar Alsace to the enemy.</p> + +<p>It is now time to turn to events in Italy, where the Coalition +intended to put forth its principal efforts. At the beginning of +March the French had 80,000 men in Upper Italy and some 35,000 +in the heart of the Peninsula, the latter engaged chiefly in supporting +newly-founded republics. Of the former, 53,000 formed +the field army on the Mincio under Schérer. The Austrians, +commanded by Kray, numbered in all 84,000, but detachments +reduced this figure to 67,000, of whom, moreover, 15,000 had not +yet arrived when operations began. They were to be joined by a +Russian contingent under the celebrated Suvárov, who was to +command the whole on arrival, and whose extraordinary personality +gives the campaign its special interest. Kray himself was +a resolute soldier, and when the French, obeying the general order +to advance, crossed the Adige, he defeated them in a severely +fought battle at Magnano near Verona (March 5), the French +losing 4000 killed and wounded and 4500 taken, out of 41,000. The +Austrians lost some 3800 killed and wounded and 1500 prisoners, +out of 46,000 engaged. The war, however, was undertaken not +to annihilate, but to evict the French, and, probably under orders +from Vienna, Kray allowed the beaten enemy to depart.</p> + +<p>Suvárov appeared with 17,000 Russians on the 4th of April. +His first step was to set Russian officers to teach the Austrian +troops—whose feelings can be imagined—how to +attack with the bayonet, his next to order the whole +<span class="sidenote">Suvárov.</span> +army forward. The Allies broke camp on the 17th, 18th and +19th of April, and on the 20th, after a forced march of close on +30 m., they passed the Chiese. Brescia had a French garrison, but +Suvárov soon cowed it into surrender by threats of a massacre, +which no one doubted that he would carry into execution. +At the same time, dissatisfied with the marching of the Austrian +infantry, he sent the following characteristic reproof to their +commander: “The march was in the service of the Kaiser. +Fair weather is for my lady’s chamber, for dandies, for sluggards. +He who dares to cavil against his high duty (<i>der Grosssprecher +wider den hohen Dienst</i>) is, as an egoist, instantly to vacate his +command. Whoever is in bad health can stay behind. The +so-called reasoners (<i>raisonneurs</i>) do no army any good....” +One day later, under this unrelenting pressure, the advanced +posts of the Allies reached Cremona and the main body the +Oglio. The pace became slower in the following days, as many +bridges had to be made, and meanwhile Moreau, Schérer’s +successor, prepared with a mere 20,000 men to defend Lodi, +Cassano and Lecco on the Adda. On the 26th the Russian hero +attacked him all along the line. The moral supremacy had +passed over to the Allies. Melas, under Suvárov’s stern orders, +flung his battalions regardless of losses against the strong position +of Cassano. The story of 1796 repeated itself with the rôles +reversed. The passage was carried, and the French rearguard +under Sérurier was surrounded and captured by an inferior corps +of Austrians. The Austrians (the Russians at Lecco were hardly +engaged) lost 6000 men, but they took 7000 prisoners, and in +all Moreau’s little army lost half its numbers and retreated in +many disconnected bodies to the Ticino, and thence to Alessandria. +Everywhere the Italians turned against the French, mindful of +the exactions of their commissaries. The strange Cossack +cavalry that western Europe had never yet seen entered Milan +on the 29th of April, eleven days after passing the Mincio, and +next day the city received with enthusiasm the old field marshal, +whose exploits against the Turks had long invested him with a +halo of romance and legend. Here, for the moment, his offensive +culminated. He desired to pass into Switzerland and to unite +his own, the archduke’s, Hotze’s and Bellegarde’s armies in one +powerful mass. But the emperor would not permit the execution +of this scheme until all the fortresses held by the enemy in +Upper Italy should have been captured. In any case, Macdonald’s +army in southern Italy, cut off from France by the +rapidity of Suvárov’s onslaught, and now returning with all +speed to join Moreau by force or evasion, had still to be dealt +with.</p> + +<p>Suvárov’s mobile army, originally 90,000 strong, had now +dwindled, by reason of losses and detachments for sieges, to +half that number, and serious differences arose between the +Vienna government and himself. If he offended the pride +of the Austrian army, he was at least respected as a leader who +gave it victories, but in Vienna he was regarded as a madman +who had to be kept within bounds. But at last, when he was +becoming thoroughly exasperated by this treatment, Macdonald +came within striking distance and the active campaign recommenced. +In the second week of June, Moreau, who had +retired into the Apennines about Gavi, advanced with the intention +of drawing upon himself troops that would otherwise +have been employed against Macdonald. He succeeded, for +Suvárov with his usual rapidity collected 40,000 men at Alessandria, +only to learn that Macdonald with 35,000 men was +coming up on the Parma road. When this news arrived, Macdonald +had already engaged an Austrian detachment at Modena +and driven it back, and Suvárov found himself between Moreau +and Macdonald with barely enough men under his hand to +enable him to play the game of “interior lines.” But at the +crisis the rough energetic warrior who despised “raisonneurs,” +displayed generalship of the first order, and taking in hand all his +scattered detachments, he manœuvred them in the Napoleonic +fashion.</p> + +<p>On the 14th Macdonald was calculated to be between Modena, +Reggio and Carpi, but his destination was uncertain. Would he +continue to hug the Apennines to join Moreau, or +would he strike out northwards against Kray, who +<span class="sidenote">The Trebbia.</span> +with 20,000 men was besieging Mantua? From +Alessandria it is four marches to Piacenza and nine to Mantua, +while from Reggio these places are four and two marches +respectively. Piacenza, therefore, was the crucial point if +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>196</span> +Macdonald continued westward, while, in the other case, nothing +could save Kray but the energetic conduct of Hohenzollern’s +detachment, which was posted near Reggio. This latter, however, +was soon forced over the Po, and Ott, advancing from Cremona +to join it, found himself sharply pressed in turn. The field marshal +had hoped that Ott and Hohenzollern together would be able to +win him time to assemble at Parma, where he could bring on a +battle whichever way the French took. But on receipt of Ott’s +report he was convinced that Macdonald had chosen the western +route, and ordering Ott to delay the French as long as possible by +stubborn rearguard actions and to put a garrison into Piacenza +under a general who was to hold out “on peril of his life and +honour,” he collected what forces were ready to move and +hurried towards Piacenza, the rest being left to watch Moreau. +He arrived just in time. When after three forced marches the +main body (only 26,000 strong) reached Castel San Giovanni, +Ott had been driven out of Piacenza, but the two joined forces +safely. Both Suvárov and Macdonald spent the 17th in closing +up and deploying for battle. The respective forces were Allies +30,000, French 35,000. Suvárov believed the enemy to be +only 26,000 strong, and chiefly raw Italian regiments, but his +temperament would not have allowed him to stand still even +had he known his inferiority. He had already issued one of his +peculiar battle-orders, which began with the words, “The +hostile army will be taken prisoners” and continued with +directions to the Cossacks to spare the surrendered enemy. +But Macdonald too was full of energy, and believed still that he +could annihilate Ott before the field marshal’s arrival. Thus +the battle of the Trebbia (June 17-19) was fought by both sides +in the spirit of the offensive. It was one of the severest struggles +in the Republican wars, and it ended in Macdonald’s retreat +with a loss of 15,000 men—probably 6000 in the battle and +9000 killed and prisoners when and after the equilibrium was +broken—for Suvárov, unlike other generals, had the necessary +surplus of energy after all the demands made upon him by a +great battle, to order and to direct an effective pursuit. The +Allies lost about 7000. Macdonald retreated to Parma and +Modena, harassed by the peasantry, and finally recrossed the +Apennines and made his way to Genoa. The battle of the +Trebbia is one of the most clearly-defined examples in military +history of the result of moral force—it was a matter not merely +of energetic leading on the battlefield, but far more of educating +the troops beforehand to meet the strain, of ingraining in the +soldier the determination to win at all costs. “It was not,” +says Clausewitz, “a case of losing the key of the position, of +turning a flank or breaking a centre, of a mistimed cavalry charge +or a lost battery ... it is a pure trial of strength and expense of +force, and victory is the sinking of the balance, if ever so slightly, +in favour of one side. And we mean not merely physical, but +even more moral forces.”</p> + +<p>To return now to the Alpine region, where the French offensive +had culminated at the end of March. Their defeated left was +behind the Rhine in the northern part of Switzerland, the half-victorious +centre athwart the Rhine between Mayenfeld and +Chur, and their wholly victorious right far within Tirol between +Glurns, Nauders and Landeck. But neither the centre nor the +right could maintain itself. The forward impulse given by +Suvárov spread along the whole Austrian front from left to right. +Dessolles’ column (now under Loison) was forced back to +Chiavenna. Bellegarde drove Lecourbe from position to position +towards the Rhine during April. There Lecourbe added to the +remnant of his expeditionary column the outlying bodies of +Masséna’s right wing, but even so he had only 8000 men against +Bellegarde’s 17,000, and he was now exposed to the attack of +Hotze’s 25,000 as well. The Luziensteig fell to Hotze and Chur to +Bellegarde, but the defenders managed to escape from the +converging Austrian columns into the valley of the Reuss. +Having thus reconquered all the lost ground and forced the +French into the interior of Switzerland, Bellegarde and Hotze +parted company, the former marching with the greater part of his +forces to join Suvárov, the latter moving to his right to reinforce +the archduke. Only a chain of posts was left in the Rhine +Valley between Disentis and Feldkirch. The archduke’s operations +now recommenced.</p> + +<p>Charles and Hotze stood, about the 15th of May, at opposite +ends of the lake of Constance. The two together numbered about +88,000 men, but both had sent away numerous detachments to the +flanks, and the main bodies dwindled to 35,000 for the archduke +and 20,000 for Hotze. Masséna, with 45,000 men in all, retired +slowly from the Rhine to the Thur. The archduke crossed the +Rhine at Stein, Hotze at Balzers, and each then cautiously felt his +way towards the other. Their active opponent attempted to +take advantage of their separation, and an irregular fight took +place in the Thur valley (May 25), but Masséna, finding Hotze +close on his right flank, retired without attempting to force a +decision. On the 27th, having joined forces, the Austrians +dislodged Masséna from his new position on the Töss without +difficulty, and this process was repeated from time to time in the +<span class="sidenote">Action of Zürich.</span> +next few days, until at last Masséna halted in the +position he had prepared for defence at Zürich. He +had still but 25,000 of his 45,000 men in hand, for he +maintained numerous small detachments on his right, behind the +Zürcher See and the Wallen See, and on his left towards Basel. +These 25,000 occupied an entrenched position 5 m. in length; +against which the Austrians, detaching as usual many posts to +protect their flanks and rear, deployed only 42,000 men, of whom +8000 were sent on a wide turning movement and 8000 held in +reserve 4 m. in rear of the battlefield. Thus the frontal attack +was made with forces not much greater than those of the defence +and it failed accordingly (June 4). But Masséna, fearing perhaps +to strain the loyalty of the Swiss to their French-made constitution +by exposing their town to assault and sack, retired on the 5th.</p> + +<p>He did not fall back far, for his outposts still bordered the +Limmat and the Linth, while his main body stood in the valley of +the Aar between Baden and Lucerne. The archduke pressed +Masséna as little as he had pressed Jourdan after Stokach +(though in this case he had less to gain by pursuit), and awaited +the arrival of a second Russian army, 30,000 strong, under +Korsákov, before resuming the advance, meantime throwing out +covering detachments towards Basel, where Masséna had a +division. Thus for two months operations, elsewhere than in +Italy, were at a standstill, while Masséna drew in reinforcements +and organized the fractions of his forces in Alsace as a skeleton +army, and the Austrians distributed arms to the peasantry of +South Germany.</p> + +<p>In the end, under pressure from Paris, it was Masséna who +resumed active movements. Towards the middle of August, +Lecourbe, who formed a loose right wing of the French army in +the Reuss valley, was reinforced to a strength of 25,000 men, and +pounced upon the extended left wing of the enemy, which had +stretched itself, to keep pace with Suvárov, as far westward as the +St Gothard. The movement began on the 14th, and in two days +the Austrians were driven back from the St Gothard and the +Furka to the line of the Linth, with the loss of 8000 men and many +guns. At the same time an attempt to take advantage of +Masséna’s momentary weakness by forcing the Aar at Döttingen +near its mouth failed completely (August 16-17). Only 200 +men guarded the point of passage, but the Austrian engineers +had neglected to make a proper examination of the river, and +unlike the French, the Austrian generals had no authority to +waste their expensive battalions in forcing the passage in boats. +No one regarded this war as a struggle for existence, and no one +but Suvárov possessed the iron strength of character to send +thousands of men to death for the realization of a diplomatic +success—for ordinary men, the object of the Coalition was to +upset the treaty of Campo Formio. This was the end of the +archduke’s campaign in Switzerland. Though he would have +preferred to continue it, the Vienna government desired him to +return to Germany. An Anglo-Russian expedition was about to +land in Holland,<a name="fa14a" id="fa14a" href="#ft14a"><span class="sp">14</span></a> and the French were assembling fresh forces on +the Rhine, and, with the double object of preventing an invasion of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>197</span> +South Germany and of inducing the French to augment their +forces in Alsace at the expense of those in Holland, the archduke +left affairs in Switzerland to Hotze and Korsákov, and marched +away with 35,000 men to join the detachment of Sztarray +(20,000) that he had placed in the Black Forest before entering +Switzerland. His new campaign never rose above the level of a +war of posts and of manœuvres about Mannheim and Philippsburg. +In the latter stage of it Lecourbe commanded the French +and obtained a slight advantage.</p> + +<p>Suvárov’s last exploit in Italy coincided in time, but in no other +respect, with the skirmish at Döttingen. Returning swiftly from +the battlefield of the Trebbia, he began to drive back Moreau to +the Riviera. At this point Joubert succeeded to the command +on the French side, and against the advice of his generals, gave +battle. Equally against the advice of his own subordinates, the +field marshal accepted it, and won his last great victory at Novi +on the 13th of August, Joubert being killed. This was followed +by another rapid march against a new French “Army of the Alps” +(Championnet) which had entered Italy by way of the Mont +Cenis. But immediately after this he left all further operations in +Italy to Melas with 60,000 men and himself with the Russians and +an Austrian corps marched away, via Varese, for the St Gothard +to combine operations against Masséna with Hotze and Korsákov. +It was with a heavy heart that he left the scene of his battles, in +which the force of his personality had carried the old-fashioned +“linear” armies for the last time to complete victory. In the +early summer he had himself suggested, eagerly and almost +angrily, the concentration of his own and the archduke’s armies +in Switzerland with a view, not to conquering that country, but +to forcing Jourdan and Masséna into a grand decisive battle. +But, as we have seen, the Vienna government would not release +him until the last Italian fortress had been reoccupied, and +when finally he received the order that a little while before he had +so ardently desired, it was too late. The archduke had already +left Switzerland, and he was committed to a resultless warfare in +the high mountains, with an army which was a mere detachment +<span class="sidenote">Suvárov ordered to Switzerland.</span> +and in the hope of co-operating with two other detachments +far away on the other side of Switzerland. As +for the reasons which led to the issue of such an order, +it can only be said that the bad feeling known to exist +between the Austrians and Russians induced England to recommend, +as the first essential of further operations, the separate +concentration of the troops of each nationality under their own +generals. Still stranger was the reason which induced the tsar to +give his consent. It was alleged that the Russians would be +healthier in Switzerland than the men of the southern plains! +From such premises as these the Allied diplomats evolved a new +plan of campaign, by which the Anglo-Russians under the duke of +York were to reconquer Holland and Belgium, the Archduke +Charles to operate on the Middle Rhine, Suvárov in Switzerland +and Melas in Piedmont—a plan destitute of every merit but that +of simplicity.</p> + +<p>It is often said that it is the duty of a commander to resign +rather than undertake an operation which he believes to be faulty. +So, however, Suvárov did not understand it. In the simplicity +of his loyalty to the formal order of his sovereign he prepared to +carry out his instructions to the letter. Masséna’s command +(77,000 men) was distributed, at the beginning of September, +along an enormous S, from the Simplon, through the St Gothard +and Glarus, and along the Linth, the Züricher See and the +Limmat to Basel. Opposite the lower point of this S, Suvárov +(28,000) was about to advance. Hotze’s corps (25,000 Austrians), +extending from Utznach by Chur to Disentis, formed a thin line +roughly parallel to the lower curve of the S, Korsákov’s Russians +(30,000) were opposite the centre at Zürich, while Nauendorff +with a small Austrian corps at Waldshut faced the extreme upper +point. Thus the only completely safe way in which Suvárov +could reach the Zürich region was by skirting the lower curve of +the S, under protection of Hotze. But this detour would be +long and painful, and the ardent old man preferred to cross the +mountains once for all at the St Gothard, and to follow the valley +of the Reuss to Altdorf and Schwyz—<i>i.e.</i> to strike vertically +upward to the centre of the S—and to force his way through the +French cordon to Zürich, and if events, so far as concerned his +own corps, belied his optimism, they at any rate justified his +choice of the shortest route. For, aware of the danger gathering +in his rear, Masséna gathered up all his forces within reach +towards his centre, leaving Lecourbe to defend the St Gothard +<span class="sidenote">Battle of Zürich.</span> +and the Reuss valley and Soult on the Linth. On the 24th he +forced the passage of the Limmat at Dietikon. On the +25th, in the second battle of Zürich, he completely +routed Korsákov, who lost 8000 killed and wounded, +large numbers of prisoners and 100 guns. All along the line the +Allies fell back, one corps after another, at the moment when +Suvárov was approaching the foot of the St Gothard.</p> + +<p>On the 21st the field marshal’s headquarters were at Bellinzona, +where he made the final preparations. Expecting to be four days +<i>en route</i> before he could reach the nearest friendly +magazine, he took his trains with him, which inevitably +<span class="sidenote">Suvárov in the Alps.</span> +augmented the difficulties of the expedition. On the +24th Airolo was taken, but when the far greater task of +storming the pass itself presented itself before them, even the +stolid Russians were terrified, and only the passionate protests +of the old man, who reproached his “children” with deserting +their father in his extremity, induced them to face the danger. +At last after twelve hours’ fighting, the summit was reached. +The same evening Suvárov pushed on to Hospenthal, while a +flanking column from Disentis made its way towards Amsteg +over the Crispalt. Lecourbe was threatened in rear and pressed +in front, and his engineers, to hold off the Disentis column, had +broken the Devil’s Bridge. Discovering this, he left the road, +threw his guns into the river and made his way by fords and +water-meadows to Göschenen, where by a furious attack he +cleared the Disentis troops off his line of retreat. His rearguard +meantime held the ruined Devil’s Bridge. This point and the +tunnel leading to it, called the Urner Loch, the Russians attempted +to force, with the most terrible losses, battalion after battalion +crowding into the tunnel and pushing the foremost ranks into +the chasm left by the broken bridge. But at last a ford was +discovered and the bridge, cleared by a turning movement, +was repaired. More broken bridges lay beyond, but at last +Suvárov joined the Disentis column near Göschenen. When +Altdorf was reached, however, Suvárov found not only Lecourbe +in a threatening position, but an entire absence of boats on the +Lake of the Four Cantons. It was impossible (in those days the +Axenstrasse did not exist) to take an army along the precipitous +eastern shore, and thus passing through one trial after another, +each more severe than the last, the Russians, men and horses +and pack animals in an interminable single file, ventured on the +path leading over the Kinzig pass into the Muotta Thal. The +passage lasted three days, the leading troops losing men and +horses over the precipices, the rearguard from the fire of the +enemy, now in pursuit. And at last, on arrival in the Muotta +Thal, the field marshal received definite information that +Korsákov’s army was no longer in existence. Yet even so it was +long before he could make up his mind to retreat, and the pursuers +gathered on all sides. Fighting, sometimes severe, and never +altogether ceasing, went on day after day as the Allied column, +now reduced to 15,000 men, struggled on over one pass after +another, but at last it reached Ilanz on the Vorder Rhine (October +8). The Archduke Charles meanwhile had, on hearing of the +disaster of Zürich, brought over a corps from the Neckar, and +for some time negotiations were made for a fresh combined +operation against Masséna. But these came to nothing, for the +archduke and Suvárov could not agree, either as to their own relations +or as to the plan to be pursued. Practically, Suvárov’s +retreat from Altdorf to Ilanz closed the campaign. It was his +last active service, and formed a gloomy but grand climax to the +career of the greatest soldier who ever wore the Russian uniform.</p> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">Marengo and Hohenlinden</p> + +<p>The disasters of 1799 sealed the fate of the Directory, and +placed Bonaparte, who returned from Egypt with the prestige +of a recent victory, in his natural place as civil and military +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>198</span> +head of France. In the course of the campaign the field strength +of the French had been gradually augmented, and in spite of +losses now numbered 227,000 at the front. These were divided +into the Army of Batavia, Brune (25,000), the Army of the +Rhine, Moreau (146,000), the Army of Italy, Masséna (56,000), +and, in addition, there were some 100,000 in garrisons and depots +in France.</p> + +<p>Most of these field armies were in a miserable condition owing +to the losses and fatigues of the last campaign. The treasury +was empty and credit exhausted, and worse still—for spirit and +enthusiasm, as in 1794, would have remedied material deficiencies—the +conscripts obtained under Jourdan’s law of 1798 +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Conscription</a></span>) came to their regiments most unwillingly. +Most of them, indeed, deserted on the way to join the colours. +A large draft sent to the Army of Italy arrived with 310 men +instead of 10,250, and after a few such experiences, the First +Consul decided that the untrained men were to be assembled in +the fortresses of the interior and afterwards sent to the active +battalions in numerous small drafts, which they could more +easily assimilate. Besides accomplishing the immense task of +reorganizing existing forces, he created new ones, including +the Consular Guard, and carried out at this moment of crisis +two such far-reaching reforms as the replacement of the civilian +drivers of the artillery by soldiers, and of the hired teams by +horses belonging to the state, and the permanent grouping of +divisions in army corps.</p> + +<p>As early as the 25th of January 1800 the First Consul provided +for the assembly of all available forces in the interior in an +“Army of Reserve.” He reserved to himself the +command of this army,<a name="fa15a" id="fa15a" href="#ft15a"><span class="sp">15</span></a> which gradually came into +<span class="sidenote">The Army of Reserve.</span> +being as the pacification of Vendée and the return of +some of Brune’s troops from Holland set free the necessary +nucleus troops. The conscription law was stringently reenforced, +and impassioned calls were made for volunteers (the +latter, be it said, did not produce five hundred useful men). +The district of Dijon, partly as being central with respect to the +Rhine and Italian Armies, partly as being convenient for supply +purposes, was selected as the zone of assembly. Chabran’s +division was formed from some depleted corps of the Army of +Italy and from the depots of those in Egypt. Chambarlhac’s, +chiefly of young soldiers, lost 5% of its numbers on the way to +Dijon from desertion—a loss which appeared slight and even +satisfactory after the wholesale <i>débandade</i> of the winter months. +Lechi’s Italian legion was newly formed from Italian refugees. +Boudet’s division was originally assembled from some of the +southern garrison towns, but the units composing it were frequently +changed up to the beginning of May. The cavalry was +deficient in saddles, and many of its units were new formations. +The Consular Guard of course was a <i>corps d’élite</i>, and this and +two and a half infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade coming +from the veteran “Army of the West” formed the real backbone +of the army. Most of the newer units were not even +armed till they had left Dijon for the front.</p> + +<p>Such was the first constitution of the Army of Reserve. We +can scarcely imagine one which required more accurate and +detailed staff work to assemble it—correspondence with the +district commanders, with the adjutant-generals of the various +armies, and orders to the civil authorities on the lines of march, +to the troops themselves and to the arsenals and magazines. +No one but Napoleon, even aided by a Berthier, could have +achieved so great a task in six weeks, and the great captain, +himself doing the work that nowadays is apportioned amongst +a crowd of administrative staff officers, still found time to +administer France’s affairs at home and abroad, and to think +out a general plan of campaign that embraced Moreau’s, Masséna’s +and his own armies.</p> + +<p>The Army of the Rhine, by far the strongest and best equipped, +lay on the upper Rhine. The small and worn-out Army of Italy +was watching the Alps and the Apennines from Mont Blanc to +Genoa. Between them Switzerland, secured by the victory of +Zürich, offered a starting-point for a turning movement on +either side—this year the advantage of the flank position was +recognized and acted upon. The Army of Reserve was assembling +around Dijon, within 200 m. of either theatre of war. The +general plan was that the Army of Reserve should march through +Switzerland to close on the right wing of the Army of the Rhine. +Thus supported to whatever degree might prove to be necessary, +Moreau was to force the passage of the Rhine about Schaffhausen, +to push back the Austrians rapidly beyond the Lech, and then, +if they took the offensive in turn, to hold them in check for +ten or twelve days. During this period of guaranteed freedom +the decisive movement was to be made. The Army of Reserve, +augmented by one large corps of the Army of the Rhine, was to +descend by the Splügen (alternatively by the St Gothard and +even by Tirol) into the plains of Lombardy. Magazines were +to be established at Zürich and Lucerne (not at Chur, lest the +plan should become obvious from the beginning), and all likely +routes reconnoitred in advance. The Army of Italy was at first +to maintain a strict defensive, then to occupy the Austrians +until the entry of the Reserve Army into Italy was assured, and +finally to manœuvre to join it.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:518px; height:634px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img198.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p class="pt2">Moreau, however, owing to want of horses for his pontoon +train and also because of the character of the Rhine above +Basel, preferred to cross below that place, especially as in Alsace +there were considerably greater supply facilities than in a country +which had already been fought over and stripped bare. With +the greatest reluctance Bonaparte let him have his way, and +giving up the idea of using the Splügen and the St Gothard, began +to turn his attention to the more westerly passes, the St Bernard +and the Simplon. It was not merely Moreau’s scruples that led +to this essential modification in the scheme. At the beginning +of April the enemy took the offensive against Masséna. On the +8th Melas’s right wing dislodged the French from the Mont +Cenis, and most of the troops that had then reached Dijon were +shifted southward to be ready for emergencies. By the 25th +Berthier reported that Masséna was seriously attacked and that +he might have to be supported by the shortest route. Bonaparte’s +resolution was already taken. He waited no longer for Moreau +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>199</span> +(who indeed so far from volunteering assistance, actually demanded +it for himself). Convinced from the paucity of news that Masséna’s +army was closely pressed and probably severed from France, +and feeling also that the Austrians were deeply committed +to their struggle with the Army of Italy, he told Berthier to +march with 40,000 men at once by way of the St Bernard unless +otherwise advised. Berthier protested that he had only 25,000 +effectives, and the equipment and armament was still far from +complete—as indeed it remained to the end—but the troops +marched, though their very means of existence were precarious +from the time of leaving Geneva to the time of reaching Milan, +for nothing could extort supplies and money from the sullen +Swiss.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of May the First Consul learned of the +serious plight of the Army of Italy. Masséna with his right +wing was shut up in Genoa, Suchet with the left wing +driven back to the Var. Meanwhile Moreau had won +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon’s plan of campaign.</span> +a preliminary victory at Stokach, and the Army of +Reserve had begun its movement to Geneva. With +these data the plan of campaign took a clear shape at last—Masséna +to resist as long as possible; Suchet to resume the +offensive, if he could do so, towards Turin; the Army of Reserve +to pass the Alps and to debouch into Piedmont by Aosta; the +Army of the Rhine to send a strong force into Italy by the St +Gothard. The First Consul left Paris on the 6th of May. +Berthier went forward to Geneva, and still farther on the route +magazines were established at Villeneuve and St-Pierre. +Gradually, and with immense efforts, the leading troops of the +long column<a name="fa16a" id="fa16a" href="#ft16a"><span class="sp">16</span></a> were passed over the St Bernard, drawing their +artillery on sledges, on the 15th and succeeding days. Driving +away small posts of the Austrian army, the advance guard +entered Aosta on the 16th and Châtillon on the 18th and the +alarm was given. Melas, committed as he was to his Riviera +campaign, began to look to his right rear, but he was far from +suspecting the seriousness of his opponent’s purpose.</p> + +<p>Infinitely more dangerous for the French than the small +detachment that Melas opposed to them, or even the actual +crossing of the pass, was the unexpected stopping +power of the little fort of Bard. The advanced guard +<span class="sidenote">Bard.</span> +of the French appeared before it on the 19th, and after three +wasted days the infantry managed to find a difficult mountain +by-way and to pass round the obstacle. Ivrea was occupied +on the 23rd, and Napoleon hoped to assemble the whole army +there by the 27th. But except for a few guns that with infinite +precautions were smuggled one by one through the streets of +Bard, the whole of the artillery, as well as a detachment (under +Chabran) to besiege the fort, had to be left behind. Bard surrendered +on the 2nd of June, having delayed the infantry of +the French army for four days and the artillery for a fortnight.</p> + +<p>The military situation in the last week of May, as it presented +itself to the First Consul at Ivrea, was this. The Army of Italy +under Masséna was closely besieged in Genoa, where provisions +were running short, and the population so hostile that the French +general placed his field artillery to sweep the streets. But +Masséna was no ordinary general, and the First Consul knew +that while Masséna lived the garrison would resist to the last +extremity. Suchet was defending Nice and the Var by vigorous +minor operations. The Army of Reserve, the centre of which +had reached at Ivrea the edge of the Italian plains, consisted +of four weak army corps under Victor, Duhesme, Lannes and +Murat. There were still to be added to this small army of 34,000 +effectives, Turreau’s division, which had passed over the Mont +Cenis and was now in the valley of the Dora Riparia, Moncey’s +corps of the Army of the Rhine, which had at last been extorted +from Moreau and was due to pass the St Gothard before the end +of May, Chabran’s division left to besiege Bard, and a small +force under Béthencourt, which was to cross the Simplon and +to descend by Arona (this place proved in the event a second +Bard and immobilized Béthencourt until after the decisive +battle). Thus it was only the simplest part of Napoleon’s task +to concentrate half of his army at Ivrea, and he had yet to bring +in the rest. The problem was to reconcile the necessity for time, +which he wanted to ensure the maximum force being brought +over the Alps, with the necessity for haste, in view of the impending +fall of Genoa and the probability that once this conquest +was achieved, Melas would bring back his 100,000 men into the +Milanese to deal with the Army of Reserve. As early as the 14th +of May he had informed Moncey that from Ivrea the Army of +Reserve would move on Milan. On the 25th of May, in response +to Berthier’s request for guidance, the First Consul ordered +Lannes (advanced guard) to push out on the Turin road, “in +order to deceive the enemy and to obtain news of Turreau,” +and Duhesme’s and Murat’s corps to proceed along the Milan +road. On the 27th, after Lannes had on the 26th defeated an +Austrian column near Chivasso, the main body was already +advancing on Vercelli.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Very few of Napoleon’s acts of generalship have been more +criticized than this resolution to march on Milan, which abandoned +Genoa to its fate and gave Melas a week’s leisure to +assemble his scattered forces. The account of his motives +<span class="sidenote">The march to Milan.</span> +he dictated at St Helena (<i>Nap. Correspondence</i>, v. 30, +pp. 375-377), in itself an unconvincing appeal to the rules of strategy +as laid down by the theorists—which rules his own practice throughout +transcended—gives, when closely examined, some at least of the +necessary clues. He says in effect that by advancing directly on +Turin he would have “risked a battle against equal forces without +an assured line of retreat, Bard being still uncaptured.” It is indeed +strange to find Napoleon shrinking before <i>equal</i> forces of the enemy, +even if we admit without comment that it was more difficult to pass +Bard the second time than the first. The only incentive to go +towards Turin was the chance of partial victories over the disconnected +Austrian corps that would be met in that direction, and this he +deliberately set aside. Having done so, for reasons that will appear +in the sequel, he could only defend it by saying in effect that he might +have been defeated—which was true, but not the Napoleonic principle +of war. Of the alternatives, one was to hasten to Genoa; this in +Napoleon’s eyes would have been playing the enemy’s game, for they +would have concentrated at Alessandria, facing west “in their +natural position.” It is equally obvious that thus the enemy would +have played <i>his</i> game, supposing that this was to relieve Genoa, and +the implication is that it was not. The third course, which Napoleon +took, and in this memorandum defended, gave his army the enemy’s +depots at Milan, of which it unquestionably stood in sore need, and +the reinforcement of Moncey’s 15,000 men from the Rhine, while at +the same time Moncey’s route offered an “assured line of retreat” +by the Simplon<a name="fa17a" id="fa17a" href="#ft17a"><span class="sp">17</span></a> and the St Gothard. He would in fact make for +himself there a “natural position” without forfeiting the advantage +of being in Melas’s rear. Once possessed of Milan, Napoleon says, +he could have engaged Melas with a light heart and with confidence +in the greatest possible results of a victory, whether the Austrians +sought to force their way back to the east by the right or the left +bank of the Po, and he adds that if the French passed on and concentrated +south of the Po there would be no danger to the Milan-St +Gothard line of retreat, as this was secured by the rivers Ticino +and Sesia. In this last, as we shall see, he is shielding an undeniable +mistake, but considering for the moment only the movement to +Milan, we are justified in assuming that his object was not the relief +of Genoa, but the most thorough defeat of Melas’s field army, to +which end, putting all sentiment aside, he treated the hard-pressed +Masséna as a “containing force” to keep Melas occupied during the +strategical deployment of the Army of Reserve. In the beginning +he had told Masséna that he would “disengage” him, even if he +had to go as far east as Trent to find a way into Italy. From the +first, then, no direct relief was intended, and when, on hearing bad +news from the Riviera, he altered his route to the more westerly +passes, it was probably because he felt that Masséna’s containing +power was almost exhausted, and that the passage and reassembly +of the Reserve Army must be brought about in the minimum time +and by the shortest way. But the object was still the defeat of +Melas, and for this, as the Austrians possessed an enormous numerical +superiority, the assembly of all forces, including Moncey’s, was +indispensable. One essential condition of this was that the points +of passage used should be out of reach of the enemy. The more +westerly the passes chosen, the more dangerous was the whole +operation—in fact the Mont Cenis column never reached him at all—and +though his expressed objections to the St Bernard line seem, +as we have said, to be written after the event, to disarm his critics, +there is no doubt that at the time he disliked it. It was a <i>pis aller</i> +forced upon him by Moreau’s delay and Masséna’s extremity, and +from the moment at which he arrived at Milan he did, as a fact, +abandon it altogether in favour of the St Gothard. Lastly, so strongly +was he impressed with the necessity of completing the deployment +of all his forces, that though he found the Austrians on the Turin +side much scattered and could justifiably expect a series of rapid +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>200</span> +partial victories, Napoleon let them go, and devoted his whole +energy to creating for himself a “natural” position about Milan. +If he sinned, at any rate he sinned handsomely, and except that he +went to Milan by Vercelli instead of by Lausanne and Domodossola<a name="fa18a" id="fa18a" href="#ft18a"><span class="sp">18</span></a> +(on the safe side of the mountains), his march is logistically beyond +cavil.</p> +</div> + +<p>Napoleon’s immediate purpose, then, was to reassemble the +Army of Reserve in a zone of manœuvre about Milan. This +was carried out in the first days of June. Lannes at Chivasso +stood ready to ward off a flank attack until the main army had +filed past on the Vercelli road, then leaving a small force to combine +with Turreau (whose column had not been able to advance +into the plain) in demonstrations towards Turin, he moved off, +still acting as right flank guard to the army, in the direction of +Pavia. The main body meanwhile, headed by Murat, advanced +on Milan by way of Vercelli and Magenta, forcing the passage of +the Ticino on the 31st of May at Turbigo and Buffalora. On the +same day the other divisions closed up to the Ticino,<a name="fa19a" id="fa19a" href="#ft19a"><span class="sp">19</span></a> and faithful +to his principles Napoleon had an examination made of the +little fortress of Novara, intending to occupy it as a <i>place du +moment</i> to help in securing his zone of manœuvre. On the morning +of the 2nd of June Murat occupied Milan, and in the evening +of the same day the headquarters entered the great city, the +Austrian detachment under Vukassovich (the flying right wing +of Melas’s general cordon system in Piedmont) retiring to the +Adda. Duhesme’s corps forced that river at Lodi, and pressed +on with orders to organize Crema and if possible Orzinovi as +temporary fortresses. Lechi’s Italians were sent towards +Bergamo and Brescia. Lannes meantime had passed Vercelli, +and on the evening of the 2nd his cavalry reached Pavia, where, +as at Milan, immense stores of food, equipment and warlike +stores were seized.</p> + +<p>Napoleon was now safe in his “natural” position, and barred +one of the two main lines of retreat open to the Austrians. But +his ambitions went further, and he intended to cross the Po and to +establish himself on the other likewise, thus establishing across +the plain a complete barrage between Melas and Mantua. Here +his end outranged his means, as we shall see. But he gave himself +every chance that rapidity could afford him, and the moment that +some sort of a “zone of manœuvre” had been secured between +the Ticino and the Oglio, he pushed on his main body—or rather +what was left after the protective system had been provided for—to +the Po. He would not wait even for his guns, which had at +last emerged from the Bard defile and were ordered to come to +Milan by a safe and circuitous route along the foot of the Alps.</p> + +<p>At this point the action of the enemy began to make itself +felt. Melas had not gained the successes that he had expected +in Piedmont and on the Riviera, thanks to Masséna’s +obstinacy and to Suchet’s brilliant defence of the Var. +<span class="sidenote">Melas’s movements.</span> +These operations had led him very far afield, and the +protection of his over-long line of communications had +caused him to weaken his large army by throwing off many +detachments to watch the Alpine valleys on his right rear. +One of these successfully opposed Turreau in the valley of the +Dora Riparia, but another had been severely handled by Lannes +at Chivasso, and a third (Vukassovich) found itself, as we know, +directly in the path of the French as they moved from Ivrea to +Milan, and was driven far to the eastward. He was further +handicapped by the necessity of supporting Ott before Genoa +and Elsnitz on the Var, and hearing of Lannes’s bold advance on +Chivasso and of the presence of a French column with artillery +(Turreau) west of Turin, he assumed that the latter represented +the main body of the Army of Reserve—in so far indeed as he +believed in the existence of that army at all.<a name="fa20a" id="fa20a" href="#ft20a"><span class="sp">20</span></a> Next, when +Lannes moved away towards Pavia, Melas thought for a moment +that fate had delivered his enemy into his hands, and began to +collect such troops as were at hand at Turin with a view to cutting +off the retreat of the French on Ivrea while Vukassovich held +them in front. It was only when news came of Moncey’s arrival +in Italy and of Vukassovich’s fighting retreat on Brescia that the +magnitude and purpose of the French column that had penetrated +by Ivrea became evident. Melas promptly decided to give up +his western enterprises, and to concentrate at Alessandria, +preparatory to breaking his way through the network of small +columns—as the disseminated Army of Reserve still appeared +to be—which threatened to bar his retreat. But orders circulated +so slowly that he had to wait in Turin till the 8th of June for +Elsnitz, whose retreat was, moreover, sharply followed up and +made exceedingly costly by the enterprising Suchet. Ott, too, +in spite of orders to give up the siege of Genoa at once and to +march with all speed to hold the Alessandria-Piacenza road, +waited two days to secure the prize, and agreed (June 4) to allow +Masséna’s army to go free and to join Suchet. And lastly, the +cavalry of O’Reilly, sent on ahead from Alessandria to the +Stradella defile, reached that point only to encounter the French. +The barrage was complete, and it remained for Melas to break +it with the mass that he was assembling, with all these misfortunes +and delays, about Alessandria. His chances of doing so were +anything but desperate.</p> + +<p>On the 5th of June Murat, with his own corps and part of +Duhesme’s, had moved on Piacenza, and stormed the bridge-head +there. Duhesme with one of his divisions pushed out on Crema +and Orzinovi and also towards Pizzighetone. Moncey’s leading +regiments approached Milan, and Berthier thereupon sent on +Victor’s corps to support Murat and Lannes. Meantime the half +abandoned line of operations, Ivrea-Vercelli, was briskly attacked +by the Austrians, who had still detachments on the side of Turin, +waiting for Elsnitz to rejoin, and the French artillery train was +once more checked. On the 6th Lannes from Pavia, crossing the +Po at San Cipriano, encountered and defeated a large force, +(O’Reilly’s column), and barred the Alessandria-Parma main +road. Opposite Piacenza Murat had to spend the day in gathering +material for his passage, as the pontoon bridge had been cut +by the retreating garrison of the bridge-head. On the eastern +border of the “zone of manœuvre” Duhesme’s various columns +moved out towards Brescia and Cremona, pushing back Vukassovich. +Meantime the last divisions of the Army of Reserve (two +of Moncey’s excepted) were hurried towards Lannes’s point of +passage, as Murat had not yet secured Piacenza. On the 7th, +while Duhesme continued to push back Vukassovich and seized +Cremona, Murat at last captured Piacenza, finding there immense +magazines. Meantime the army, division by division, passed +over, slowly owing to a sudden flood, near Belgiojoso, and +Lannes’s advanced guard was ordered to open communication +with Murat along the main road Stradella-Piacenza. “Moments +are precious” said the First Consul. He was aware that Elsnitz +was retreating before Suchet, that Melas had left Turin for +Alessandria, and that heavy forces of the enemy were at or east +of Tortona. He knew, too, that Murat had been engaged with +certain regiments recently before Genoa and (wrongly) assumed +O’Reilly’s column, beaten by Lannes at San Cipriano, to have +come from the same quarter. Whether this meant the deliverance +or the surrender of Genoa he did not yet know, but it was certain +that Masséna’s holding action was over, and that Melas was +gathering up his forces to recover his communications. Hence +Napoleon’s great object was concentration. “Twenty thousand +men at Stradella,” in his own words, was the goal of his efforts, +and with the accomplishment of this purpose the campaign enters +on a new phase.</p> + +<p>On the 8th of June, Lannes’s corps was across, Victor following +as quickly as the flood would allow. Murat was at Piacenza, +but the road between Lannes and Murat was not known to +be clear, and the First Consul made the establishment of the +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon’s dispositions.</span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>201</span> +connexion, and the construction of a third point of passage midway +between the other two, the principal objects of the day’s +work. The army now being disseminated between the +Alps, the Apennines, the Ticino and the Chiese, it +was of vital importance to connect up the various +parts into a well-balanced system. But the Napoleon +of 1800 solved the problem that lay at the root of his +strategy, “concentrate, but be vulnerable nowhere,” in a way +that compares unfavourably indeed with the methods of the +Napoleon of 1806. Duhesme was still absent at Cremona. +Lechi was far away in the Brescia country, Béthencourt detained +at Arona. Moncey with about 15,000 men had to cover +an area of 40 m. square around Milan, which constituted the +original zone of manœuvre, and if Melas chose to break through +the flimsy cordon of outposts on this side (the risk of which was +the motive for detaching Moncey at all) instead of at the Stradella, +it would take Moncey two days to concentrate his force on any +battlefield within the area named, and even then he would be +outnumbered by two to one. As for the main body at the +Stradella, its position was wisely chosen, for the ground was too +cramped for the deployment of the superior force that Melas +might bring up, but the strategy that set before itself as an +object 20,000 men at the decisive point out of 50,000 available, +is, to say the least, imperfect. The most serious feature in all this +was the injudicious order to Lannes to send forward his advanced +guard, and to attack whatever enemy he met with on the road to +Voghera. The First Consul, in fact, calculated that Melas could +not assemble 20,000 men at Alessandria before the 12th of +June, and he told Lannes that if he met the Austrians towards +Voghera, they could not be more than 10,000 strong. A later +order betrays some anxiety as to the exactitude of these assumptions, +warns Lannes not to let himself be surprised, indicates his +line of retreat, and, instead of ordering him to advance on Voghera, +authorizes him to attack any corps that presented itself at +Stradella. But all this came too late. Acting on the earlier +order Lannes fought the battle of Montebello on the 9th. This +<span class="sidenote">Montebello.</span> +was a very severe running fight, beginning east of +Casteggio and ending at Montebello, in which the +French drove the Austrians from several successive +positions, and which culminated in a savage fight at close +quarters about Montebello itself. The singular feature of the +battle is the disproportion between the losses on either side—French, +500 out of 12,000 engaged; Austrians, 2100 killed +and wounded and 2100 prisoners out of 14,000. These figures +are most conclusive evidence of the intensity of the French +military spirit in those days. One of the two divisions (Watrin’s) +was indeed a veteran organization, but the other, Chambarlhac’s, +was formed of young troops and was the same that, in the march +to Dijon, had congratulated itself that only 5% of its men had +deserted. On the other side the soldiers fought for “the honour of +their arms”—not even with the courage of despair, for they were +ignorant of the “strategic barrage” set in front of them by +Napoleon, and the loss of their communications had not as yet +lessened their daily rations by an ounce.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Napoleon had issued orders for the main body to +stand fast, and for the detachments to take up their definitive +covering positions. Duhesme’s corps was directed, from its +eastern foray, to Piacenza, to join the main body. Moncey was +to provide for the defence of the Ticino line, Lechi to +form a “flying camp” in the region of Orzinovi-Brescia and +Cremona, and another mixed brigade was to control the Austrians +in Pizzighetone and in the citadel of Piacenza. On the other +side of the Po, between Piacenza and Montebello, was the main +body (Lannes, Murat and part of Victor’s and Duhesme’s corps), +and a flank guard was stationed near Pavia, with orders to keep +on the right of the army as it advanced (this is the first and only +hint of any intention to go westward) and to fall back fighting +should Melas come on by the left bank. One division was to be +always a day’s march behind the army on the right bank, and +a flotilla was to ascend the Po, to facilitate the speedy reinforcement +of the flank guard. Farther to the north was a small +column on the road Milan-Vercelli. All the protective troops, +except the division of the main body detailed as an eventual +support for the flank guard, was to be found by Moncey’s corps +(which had besides to watch the Austrians in the citadel of Milan) +and Chabran’s and Lechi’s weak commands. On this same day +Bonaparte tells the Minister of War, Carnot, that Moncey has +only brought half the expected reinforcements and that half of +these are unreliable. As to the result of the impending contest +Napoleon counts greatly upon the union of 18,000 men under +Masséna and Suchet to crush Melas against the “strategic +barrage” of the Army of Reserve, by one or other bank of the +Po, and he seems equally confident of the result in either case. +If Genoa had held out three days more, he says, it would have +been easy to count the number of Melas’s men who escaped. +The exact significance of this last notion is difficult to establish, +and all that could be written about it would be merely conjectural. +But it is interesting to note that, without admitting it, Napoleon +felt that his “barrage” might not stand before the flood. The +details of the orders of the 9th to the main body (written before +the news of Montebello arrived at headquarters) tend to the +closest possible concentration of the main body towards +Casteggio, in view of a decisive battle on the 12th or 13th.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:497px; height:443px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img201.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p class="pt2">But another idea had begun to form itself in his mind. Still +believing that Melas would attack him on the Stradella side, +and hastening his preparations to meet this, he began to allow +for the contingency of Melas giving up or failing in his +<span class="sidenote">Napoleon’s advance.</span> +attempt to re-establish his communication with the +Mantovese, and retiring on Genoa, which was now +in his hands and could be provisioned and reinforced by sea. +On the 10th Napoleon ordered reserve ammunition to be sent +from Pavia, giving Serravalle, which is south of Novi, as its +probable destination. But this was surmise, and of the facts +he knew nothing. Would the enemy move east on the Stradella, +north-east on the Ticino or south on Genoa? Such reports as +were available indicated no important movements whatever, +which happened to be true, but could hardly appear so to the +French headquarters. On the 11th, though he thereby forfeited +the reinforcements coming up from Duhesme’s corps at Cremona, +Napoleon ordered the main body to advance to the Scrivia. +Lapoype’s division (the right flank guard), which was observing +the Austrian posts towards Casale, was called to the south bank +of the Po, the zone around Milan was stripped so bare of troops +that there was no escort for the prisoners taken at Montebello, +while information sent by Chabran (now moving up from Ivrea) +as to the construction of bridges at Casale (this was a feint made +by Melas on the 10th) passed unheeded. The crisis was at hand, +and, clutching at the reports collected by Lapoype as to the +quietude of the Austrians toward Valenza and Casale, Bonaparte +and Berthier strained every nerve to bring up more men to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>202</span> +Voghera side in the hope of preventing the prey from slipping +away to Genoa.</p> + +<p>On the 12th, consequently, the army (the <i>ordre de bataille</i> of +which had been considerably modified on the 11th) moved to +the Scrivia, Lannes halting at Castelnuovo, Desaix (who had +just joined the army from Egypt) at Pontecurone, Victor at +Tortona with Murat’s cavalry in front towards Alessandria. +Lapoype’s division, from the left bank of the Po, was marching in +all haste to join Desaix. Moncey, Duhesme, Lechi and Chabran +were absent. The latter represented almost exactly half of +Berthier’s command (30,000 out of 58,000), and even the concentration +of 28,000 men on the Scrivia had only been obtained +by practically giving up the “barrage” on the left bank of the +Po. Even now the enemy showed nothing but a rearguard, +and the old questions reappeared in a new and acute form. +Was Melas still in Alessandria? Was he marching on Valenza +and Casale to cross the Po? or to Acqui against Suchet, or to +Genoa to base himself on the British fleet? As to the first, +why had he given up his chances of fighting on one of the few +cavalry battlegrounds in north Italy—the plain of Marengo—since +he could not stay in Alessandria for any indefinite time? +The second question had been answered in the negative by +Lapoype, but his latest information was thirty-six hours old. +As for the other questions, no answer whatever was forthcoming, +and the only course open was to postpone decisive measures +and to send forward the cavalry, supported by infantry, to gain +information.</p> + +<p>On the 13th, therefore, Murat, Lannes and Victor advanced +into the plain of Marengo, traversed it without difficulty and +carrying the villages held by the Austrian rearguard, +established themselves for the night within a mile of +<span class="sidenote">Marengo.</span> +the fortress. But meanwhile Napoleon, informed we may suppose +of their progress, had taken a step that was fraught with the +gravest consequences. He had, as we know, no intention of +forcing on a decision until his reconnaissance produced the +information on which to base it, and he had therefore kept back +three divisions under Desaix at Pontecurone. But as the day +wore on without incident, he began to fear that the reconnaissance +would be profitless, and unwilling to give Melas any further +start, he sent out these divisions right and left to find and to +hold the enemy, whichever way the latter had gone. At noon +Desaix with one division was despatched southward to Rivalta +to head off Melas from Genoa and at 9 <span class="scs">A.M.</span> on the 14th,<a name="fa21a" id="fa21a" href="#ft21a"><span class="sp">21</span></a> Lapoype +was sent back over the Po to hold the Austrians should they +be advancing from Valenza towards the Ticino. Thus there +remained in hand only 21,000 men when at last, in the forenoon +of the 14th the whole of Melas’s army, more than 40,000 strong, +moved out of Alessandria, not southward nor northward, but +due west into the plain of Marengo (<i>q.v.</i>). The extraordinary +battle that followed is described elsewhere. The outline of +it is simple enough. The Austrians advanced slowly and in the +face of the most resolute opposition, until their attack had +gathered weight, and at last they were carrying all before them, +when Desaix returned from beyond Rivalta and initiated a +series of counterstrokes. These were brilliantly successful, +and gave the French not only local victory but the supreme +self-confidence that, next day, enabled them to extort from +Melas an agreement to evacuate all Lombardy as far as the +Mincio. And though in this way the chief prize, Melas’s army, +escaped after all, Marengo was the birthday of the First +Empire.</p> + +<p>One more blow, however, was required before the Second +Coalition collapsed, and it was delivered by Moreau. We have +seen that he had crossed the upper Rhine and defeated Kray +at Stokach. This was followed by other partial victories, and +Kray then retired to Ulm, where he reassembled his forces, +hitherto scattered in a long weak line from the Neckar to Schaffhausen. +Moreau continued his advance, extending his forces +up to and over the Danube below Ulm, and winning several +combats, of which the most important was that of Höchstädt, +fought on the famous battlegrounds of 1703 and 1704, and +memorable for the death of La Tour d’Auvergne, the “First +Grenadier of France” (June 19). Finding himself in danger of +envelopment, Kray now retired, swiftly and skilfully, across the +front of the advancing French, and reached Ingolstadt in safety. +Thence he retreated over the Inn, Moreau following him to the +edge of that river, and an armistice put an end for the moment +to further operations.</p> + +<p>This not resulting in a treaty of peace, the war was resumed +both in Italy and in Germany. The Army of Reserve and the +Army of Italy, after being fused into one, under Masséna’s +command, were divided again into a fighting army under Brune, +who opposed the Austrians (Bellegarde) on the Mincio, and a +political army under Murat, which re-established French influence +in the Peninsula. The former, extending on a wide front as +usual, won a few strategical successes without tactical victory, +the only incidents of which worth recording are the gallant +fight of Dupont’s division, which had become isolated during a +manœuvre, at Pozzolo on the Mincio (December 25) and the +descent of a corps under Macdonald from the Grisons by way of +the Splügen, an achievement far surpassing Napoleon’s and +even Suvárov’s exploits, in that it was made after the winter +snows had set in.</p> + +<p>In Germany the war for a moment reached the sublime. +Kray had been displaced in command by the young archduke +John, who ordered the denunciation of the armistice +and a general advance. His plan, or that of his +<span class="sidenote">Hohenlinden.</span> +advisers, was to cross the lower Inn, out of reach of +Moreau’s principal mass, and then to swing round the French +flank until a complete chain was drawn across their rear. But +during the development of the manœuvre, Moreau also moved, +and by rapid marching made good the time he had lost in concentrating +his over-dispersed forces. The weather was appalling, +snow and rain succeeding one another until the roads were +almost impassable. On the 2nd of December the Austrians +were brought to a standstill, but the inherent mobility of the +Revolutionary armies enabled them to surmount all difficulties, +and thanks to the respite afforded him by the archduke’s halt, +Moreau was able to see clearly into the enemy’s plans and +dispositions. On the 3rd of December, while the Austrians in +many disconnected columns were struggling through the dark +and muddy forest paths about Hohenlinden, Moreau struck +the decisive blow. While Ney and Grouchy held fast the head +of the Austrian main column at Hohenlinden, Richepanse’s +corps was directed on its left flank. In the forest Richepanse +unexpectedly met a subsidiary Austrian column which actually +cut his column in two. But profiting by the momentary confusion +he drew off that part of his forces which had passed +beyond the point of contact and continued his march, striking +the flank of the archduke’s main column, most of which had not +succeeded in deploying opposite Ney, at the village of Mattempost. +First the baggage train and then the artillery park fell into his +hands, and lastly he reached the rear of the troops engaged +opposite Hohenlinden, whereupon the Austrian main body +practically dissolved. The rear of Richepanse’s corps, after +disengaging itself from the Austrian column it had met in the +earlier part of the day, arrived at Mattempost in time to head off +thousands of fugitives who had escaped from the carnage at +Hohenlinden. The other columns of the unfortunate army +were first checked and then driven back by the French divisions +they met, which, moving more swiftly and fighting better in the +broken ground and the woods, were able to combine two brigades +against one wherever a fight developed. On this disastrous +day the Austrians lost 20,000 men, 12,000 of them being prisoners, +and 90 guns.</p> + +<p>Marengo and Hohenlinden decided the war of the Second +Coalition as Rivoli had decided that of the First, and the Revolutionary +Wars came to an end with the armistice of Steyer +(December 25, 1800) and the treaty of Lunéville (February 9, +1801). But only the first act of the great drama was accomplished. +After a short respite Europe entered upon the +Napoleonic Wars.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>203</span></p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—By far the most important modern works are +A. Chuquet’s <i>Guerres de la Révolution</i> (11 monographs forming together +a complete history of the campaigns of 1792-93), and the +publications of the French General Staff. The latter appear first, +as a rule, in the official “Revue d’histoire” and are then republished +in separate volumes, of which every year adds to the number. V. +Dupuis’ <i>L’Armée du nord 1793</i>; Coutanceau’s <i>L’Armée du nord +1794</i>; J. Colin’s <i>Éducation militaire de Napoléon</i> and <i>Campagne de +1793 en Alsace</i>; and C. de Cugnac’s <i>Campagne de l’armée de réserve +1800</i> may be specially named. Among other works of importance +the principal are C. von B(inder)-K(rieglstein), <i>Geist und Stoff im +Kriege</i> (Vienna, 1896); E. Gachot’s works on Masséna’s career +(containing invaluable evidence though written in a somewhat +rhetorical style); Ritter von Angeli, <i>Erzherzog Karl</i> (Vienna, 1896); +F. N. Maude, <i>Evolution of Modern Strategy</i>; G. A. Furse, <i>Marengo +and Hohenlinden</i>; C. von Clausewitz, <i>Feldzug 1796 in Italien</i> and +<i>Feldzug 1799</i> (French translations); H. Bonnal, <i>De Rosbach à Ulm</i>; +Krebs and Moris, <i>Campagnes dans les Alpes</i> (Paris, 1891-1895); +Yorck von Wartenburg, <i>Napoleon als Feldherr</i> (English and French +translations); F. Bouvier, <i>Bonaparte en Italie 1796</i>; Kuhl, <i>Bonaparte’s +erster Feldzug</i>; J. W. Fortescue, <i>Hist. of the British Army</i>, +vol. iv.; G. D. v. Scharnhorst, <i>Ursache des Glücks der Franzosen +1793-1794</i> (reprinted in A. Weiss’s <i>Short German Military Readings</i>, +London, 1892); E. D’Hauterive, <i>L’Armée sous la Révolution</i>; +C. Rousset, <i>Les Volontaires</i>; Max Jähns, <i>Das französische Heer</i>; +Shadwell, <i>Mountain Warfare</i>; works of Colonel Camon (<i>Guerre +Napoléonienne</i>, &c.); Austrian War Office, Krieg gegen die franz. +Revolution 1792-1797 (Vienna, 1905); Archduke Charles, <i>Grundsätze +der Strategie</i> (1796 campaign in Germany), and <i>Gesch. des Feldzuges +1799 in Deutschl. und der Schweiz</i>; v. Zeissberg, <i>Erzherzog Karl</i>; +the old history called <i>Victoires et conquêtes des Français</i> (27 volumes, +Paris, 1817-1825); M. Hartmann, <i>Anteil der Russen am Feldzug +1799 in der Schweiz</i> (Zürich, 1892); Danélewski-Miliutin, <i>Der +Krieg Russlands gegen Frankreich unter Paul I.</i> (Munich, 1858); +German General Staff, “Napoleons Feldzug 1796-1797” (Suppl. +<i>Mil. Wochenblatt</i>, 1889), and <i>Pirmasens und Kaiserslautern</i> (“Kriegsgesch. +Einzelschriften,” 1893).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(C. F. A.)</div> + +<p class="pt2 center sc">Naval Operations</p> + +<p>The naval side of the wars arising out of the French Revolution +was marked by unity, and even by simplicity. France had but +one serious enemy, Great Britain, and Great Britain had but +one purpose, to beat down France. Other states were drawn +into the strife, but it was as the allies, the enemies and at times +the victims, of the two dominating powers. The field of battle +was the whole expanse of the ocean and the landlocked seas. +The weapons, the methods and the results were the same. When +a general survey of the whole struggle is taken, its unity is +manifest. The Revolution produced a profound alteration in the +government of France, but none in the final purposes of its +policy. To secure for France its so-called “natural limits”—the +Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the ocean; to protect +both flanks by reducing Holland on the north and Spain on the +south to submission; to confirm the mighty power thus constituted, +by the subjugation of Great Britain, were the objects +of the Republic and of Napoleon, as they had been of Louis XIV. +The naval war, like the war on land, is here considered in the +first of its two phases—the Revolutionary (1792-99). (For the +Napoleonic phase (1800-15), see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleonic Campaigns</a></span>.)</p> + +<p>The Revolutionary war began in April 1792. In the September +of that year Admiral Truguet sailed from Toulon to co-operate +with the French troops operating against the Austrians and +their allies in northern Italy. In December Latouche Tréville +was sent with another squadron to cow the Bourbon rulers of +Naples. The extreme feebleness of their opponents alone saved +the French from disaster. Mutinies, which began within ten +days of the storming of the Bastille (14th of July 1789), had +disorganized their navy, and the effects of these disorders +continued to be felt so long as the war lasted. In February +1793 war broke out with Great Britain and Holland. In March +Spain was added to the list of the powers against which France +declared war. Her resources at sea were wholly inadequate +to meet the coalition she had provoked. The Convention did +indeed order that fifty-two ships of the line should be commissioned +in the Channel, but it was not able in fact to do more +than send out a few diminutive and ill-appointed squadrons, +manned by mutinous crews, which kept close to the coast. The +British navy was in excellent order, but the many calls made +on it for the protection of world-wide commerce and colonial +possessions caused the operations in the Channel to be somewhat +languid. Lord Howe cruised in search of the enemy without +being able to bring them to action. The severe blockade which +in the later stages of the war kept the British fleet permanently +outside of Brest was not enforced in the earlier stages. Lord +Howe preferred to save his fleet from the wear and tear of +perpetual cruising by maintaining his headquarters at St Helens, +and keeping watch on the French ports by frigates. The French +thus secured a freedom of movement which in the course of +1794 enabled them to cover the arrival of a great convoy laden +with food from America (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">First of June, Battle of</a></span>). This +great effort was followed by a long period of languor. Its internal +defects compelled the French fleet in the Channel to play a very +poor part till the last days of 1796. Squadrons were indeed sent +a short way to sea, but their inefficiency was conspicuously +displayed when, on the 17th of June 1795, a much superior +number of their line of battle ships failed to do any harm to the +small force of Cornwallis, and when on the 22nd of the same +month they fled in disorder before Lord Bridport at the Isle de +Groix.</p> + +<p>Operations of a more decisive character had in the meantime +taken place both in the Mediterranean and in the West Indies. +In April 1793 the first detachment of a British fleet, which was +finally raised to a strength of 21 sail of the line, under the command +of Lord Hood, sailed for the Mediterranean. By August +the admiral was off Toulon, acting in combination with a Spanish +naval force. France was torn by the contentions of Jacobins +and Girondins, and its dissensions led to the surrender of the +great arsenal to the British admiral and his Spanish colleague +Don Juan de Lángara, on the 27th of August. The allies were +joined later by a contingent from Naples. But the military +forces were insufficient to hold the land defences against the +army collected to expel them. High ground commanding the +anchorage was occupied by the besieging force, and on the 18th +of December 1793 the allies retired. They carried away or +destroyed thirty-three French vessels, of which thirteen were of +the line. But partly through the inefficiency and partly through +the ill-will of the Spaniards, who were indisposed to cripple the +French, whom they considered as their only possible allies against +Great Britain, the destruction was not so complete as had been +intended. Twenty-five ships, of which eighteen were of the line, +were left to serve as the nucleus of an active fleet in later years. +Fourteen thousand of the inhabitants fled with the allies to +escape the vengeance of the victorious Jacobins. Their sufferings, +and the ferocious massacre perpetrated on those who +remained behind by the conquerors, form one of the blackest +pages of the French Revolution. The Spanish fleet took no +further part in the war. Lord Hood now turned to the occupation +of Corsica, where the intervention of the British fleet was +invited by the patriotic party headed by Pascual Paoli. The +French ships left at Toulon were refitted and came to sea in the +spring of 1794, but Admiral Martin who commanded them did +not feel justified in giving battle, and his sorties were mere +demonstrations. From the 25th of January 1794 till November +1796 the British fleet in the Mediterranean was mainly occupied +in and about Corsica, securing the island, watching Toulon +and co-operating with the allied Austrians and Piedmontese +in northern Italy. It did much to hamper the coastwise communications +of the French. But neither Lord Hood, who went +home at the end of 1794, nor his indolent successor Hotham, +was able to deliver an effective blow at the Toulon squadron. +The second of these officers fought two confused actions with +Admiral Martin in the Gulf of Lyons on the 16th of March and +the 12th of July 1795, but though three French ships were cut +off and captured, the baffling winds and the placid disposition +of Hotham united to prevent decisive results. A new spirit was +introduced into the command of the British fleet when Sir +John Jervis, afterwards Earl Saint Vincent, succeeded Hotham +in November 1795.</p> + +<p>Jervis came to the Mediterranean with a high reputation, +which had been much enhanced by his recent command in the +West Indies. In every war with France it was the natural policy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>204</span> +of the British government to seize on its enemy’s colonial +possessions, not only because of their intrinsic value, but because +they were the headquarters of active privateers. The occupation +of the little fishing stations of St Pierre and Miquelon (14th May +1793) and of Pondicherry in the East Indies (23rd Aug. 1793) +were almost formal measures taken at the beginning of every +war. But the French West Indian islands possessed intrinsic +strength which rendered their occupation a service of difficulty +and hazard. In 1793 they were torn by dissensions, the result +of the revolution in the mother country. Tobago was occupied +in April, and the French part of the great island of San Domingo +was partially thrown into British hands by the Creoles, who +were threatened by their insurgent slaves. During 1794 a +lively series of operations, in which there were some marked +alternations of fortune, took place in and about Martinique and +Guadaloupe. The British squadron, and the contingent of +troops it carried, after a first repulse, occupied them both in +March and April, together with Santa Lucia. A vigorous +counter-attack was carried out by the Terrorist Victor Hugues +with ability and ferocity. Guadaloupe and Santa Lucia were +recovered in August. Yet on the whole the British government +was successful in its policy of destroying the French naval power +in distant seas. The seaborne commerce of the Republic was +destroyed.</p> + +<p>The naval supremacy of Great Britain was limited, and was +for a time menaced, in consequence of the advance of the French +armies on land. The invasion of Holland in 1794 led to the +downfall of the house of Orange, and the establishment of the +Batavian Republic. War with Great Britain under French +dictation followed in January 1795. In that year a British +expedition under the command of Admiral Keith Elphinstone +(afterwards Lord Keith) occupied the Dutch colony at the Cape +(August-September) and their trading station in Malacca. The +British colonial empire was again extended, and the command +of the sea by its fleet confirmed. But the necessity to maintain +a blockading force in the German Ocean imposed a fresh strain +on its naval resources, and the hostility of Holland closed a most +important route to British commerce in Europe. In 1795 +Spain made peace with France at Basel, and in September 1796 +re-entered the war as her ally. The Spanish navy was most +inefficient, but it required to be watched and therefore increased +the heavy strain on the British fleet. At the same time the rapid +advance of the French arms in Italy began to close the ports of +the peninsula to Great Britain. Its ships were for a time withdrawn +from the Mediterranean. Poor as it was in quality, the +Spanish fleet was numerous. It was able to facilitate the movements +of French squadrons sent to harass British commerce +in the Atlantic, and a concentration of forces became necessary.</p> + +<p>It was the more important because the cherished French scheme +for an attack on the heart of the British empire began to take +shape. While Spain occupied one part of the British fleet to the +south, and Holland another in the north, a French expedition, +which was to have been aided by a Dutch expedition from the +Texel, was prepared at Brest. The Dutch were confined to +harbour by the vigilant blockade of Admiral Duncan, afterwards +Lord Camperdown. But in December 1796 a French fleet commanded +by Admiral Morard de Galle, <span class="correction" title="amended from carying">carrying</span> 13,000 troops +under General Hoche, was allowed to sail from Brest for Ireland, +by the slack management of the blockade under Admiral Colpoys. +Being ill-fitted, ill-manned and exposed to constant bad weather +the French ships were scattered. Some reached their destination, +Bantry Bay, only to be driven out again by north-easterly gales. +The expedition finally returned after much suffering, and in +fragments, to Brest. Yet the year 1797 was one of extreme +trial to Great Britain. The victory of Sir John Jervis over the +Spaniards near Cape Saint Vincent on the 14th of February +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Saint Vincent, Battle of</a></span>) disposed of the Spanish fleet. +In the autumn of the year the Dutch, having put to sea, were +defeated at Camperdown by Admiral Duncan on the 11th of +October. Admiral Duncan had the more numerous force, +sixteen ships to fifteen, and they were on the average heavier. +Attacking from windward he broke through the enemy’s line +and concentrated on his rear and centre. Eight line of battleships +and two frigates were taken, but the good gunnery and +steady resistance of the Dutch made the victory costly. Between +these two battles the British fleet was for a time menaced +in its very existence by a succession of mutinies, the result of +much neglect of the undoubted grievances of the sailors. The +victory of Camperdown, completing what the victory of Cape +Saint Vincent had begun, seemed to put Great Britain beyond fear +of invasion. But the government of the Republic was intent +on renewing the attempt. The successes of Napoleon at the head +of the army of Italy had reduced Austria to sign the peace of +Campo Formio, on the 17th of October 1797, and he was appointed +commander of the new army of invasion. It was still thought +necessary to maintain the bulk of the British fleet in European +waters, within call in the ocean. The Mediterranean was left +free to the French, whose squadrons cruised in the Levant, +where the Republic had become possessed of the Ionian Islands +by the plunder of Venice. The absence of a British force in the +Mediterranean offered to the government of the French Republic +an alternative to an invasion of Great Britain or Ireland, which +promised to be less hazardous and equally effective. It was +induced largely by the persuasion of Napoleon himself, and the +wish of the politicians who were very willing to see him employed +at a distance. The expedition to Egypt under his command +sailed on the 19th of May 1798, having for its immediate +purpose the occupation of the Nile valley, and for its ultimate +aim an attack on Great Britain “from behind” in India (see +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Nile, Battle of the</a></span>). The British fleet re-entered the +Mediterranean to pursue and baffle Napoleon. The destruction +of the French squadron at the anchorage of Aboukir on the +1st of August gave it the complete command of the sea. A +second invasion of Ireland on a smaller scale was attempted +and to some extent carried out, while the great attack by Egypt +was in progress. One French squadron of four frigates carrying +1150 soldiers under General Humbert succeeded in sailing from +Rochefort on the 6th of August. On the 22nd Humbert was +landed at Killala Bay, but after making a vigorous raid he was +compelled to surrender at Ballinamuck on the 8th of September. +Eight days after his surrender, another French squadron of one +sail of the line and eight frigates carrying 3000 troops, sailed +from Brest under Commodore Bompart to support Humbert. +It was watched and pursued by frigates, and on the 12th of +October was overtaken and destroyed by a superior British +force commanded by Sir John Borlase Warren, near Tory Island.</p> + +<p>From the close of 1798 till the <i>coup d’état</i> of the 18th Brumaire +(9th November) 1799, which established Napoleon as First +Consul and master of France, the French navy had only one +object—to reinforce and relieve the army cut off in Egypt by the +battle of the Nile. The relief of the French garrison in Malta +was a subordinate part of the main purpose. But the supremacy +of the British navy was by this time so firmly founded that +neither Egypt nor Malta could be reached except by small ships +which ran the blockade. On the 25th of April, Admiral Bruix +did indeed leave Brest, after baffling the blockading fleet of +Lord Bridport, which was sent on a wild-goose chase to the south +of Ireland by means of a despatch sent out to be captured and to +deceive. Admiral Bruix succeeded in reaching Toulon, and his +presence in the Mediterranean caused some disturbance. But, +though his twenty-five sail of the line formed the best-manned +fleet which the French had sent to sea during the war, and though +he escaped being brought to battle, he did not venture to steer +for the eastern Mediterranean. On the 13th of August he was +back at Brest, bringing with him a Spanish squadron carried +off as a hostage for the fidelity of the government at Madrid to +its disastrous alliance with France. On the day on which Bruix +re-entered Brest, the 13th of August 1799, a combined Russian +and British expedition sailed from the Downs to attack the +French army of occupation in the Batavian Republic. The +military operations were unsuccessful, and terminated in the +withdrawal of the allies. But the naval part was well executed. +Vice-admiral Mitchell forced the entrance to the Texel, and on +the 30th of August received the surrender of the remainder of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>205</span> +Dutch fleet—thirteen vessels in the Nieuwe Diep—the sailors +having refused to fight for the republic. In spite of the failure on +land, the expedition did much to confirm the naval supremacy +of Great Britain by the entire suppression of the most seamanlike +of the forces opposed to it.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Authorities.—Chevalier, <i>Histoire de la marine française sous +la première République</i> (Paris, 1886); James’s <i>Naval History</i> (London, +1837); Captain Mahan, <i>Influence of Sea Power upon the French +Revolution and the Empire</i> (London, 1892). The French schemes of +invasion are exhaustively dealt with in Captain E. Desbrière’s +<i>Projets et tentatives de débarquements aux Îles Britanniques</i> (Paris, +1900, &c.).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(D. H.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1a" id="ft1a" href="#fa1a"><span class="fn">1</span></a> For the following operations see map in <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Spanish Succession War</a></span>.</p> + +<p><a name="ft2a" id="ft2a" href="#fa2a"><span class="fn">2</span></a> Coburg refrained from a regular siege of Condé. He wished to +gain possession of the fortress in a defensible state, intending to use +it as his own depot later in the year. He therefore reduced it by +famine. During the siege of Valenciennes the Allies appear to have +been supplied from Mons.</p> + +<p><a name="ft3a" id="ft3a" href="#fa3a"><span class="fn">3</span></a> Henceforth to the end of 1794 both armies were more or less +“in cordon,” the cordon possessing greater or less density at any +particular moment or place, according to the immediate intentions +of the respective commanders and the general military situation.</p> + +<p><a name="ft4a" id="ft4a" href="#fa4a"><span class="fn">4</span></a> In the course of this the column from Bouchain, 4500 strong, was +caught in the open at Avesnes-le-Sec by 5 squadrons of the allied +cavalry and literally annihilated.</p> + +<p><a name="ft5a" id="ft5a" href="#fa5a"><span class="fn">5</span></a> One of the generals at Maubeuge, Chancel, was guillotined.</p> + +<p><a name="ft6a" id="ft6a" href="#fa6a"><span class="fn">6</span></a> Each of the fifteen armies on foot had been allotted certain +departments as supply areas, Jourdan’s being of course far away in +Lorraine.</p> + +<p><a name="ft7a" id="ft7a" href="#fa7a"><span class="fn">7</span></a> Liguria was not at this period thought of, even by Napoleon, +as anything more than a supply area.</p> + +<p><a name="ft8a" id="ft8a" href="#fa8a"><span class="fn">8</span></a> Vukassovich had received Beaulieu’s order to demonstrate with +two battalions, and also appeals for help from Argenteau. He +therefore brought most of his troops with him.</p> + +<p><a name="ft9a" id="ft9a" href="#fa9a"><span class="fn">9</span></a> We have seen that after Tourcoing, taught by experience, +Souham posted Vandamme’s covering force 14 or 15 m. out. But +Napoleon’s disposition was in advance of experience.</p> + +<p><a name="ft10a" id="ft10a" href="#fa10a"><span class="fn">10</span></a> The proposed alliance with the Sardinians came to nothing. +The kings of Sardinia had always made their alliance with either +Austria or France conditional on cessions of conquered territory. +But, according to Thiers, the Directory only desired to conquer +the Milanese to restore it to Austria in return for the definitive +cession of the Austrian Netherlands. If this be so, Napoleon’s +proclamations of “freedom for Italy” were, if not a mere political +expedient, at any rate no more than an expression of his own desires +which he was not powerful enough to enforce.</p> + +<p><a name="ft11a" id="ft11a" href="#fa11a"><span class="fn">11</span></a> On entering the territory of the duke of Parma Bonaparte +imposed, besides other contributions, the surrender of twenty +famous pictures, and thus began a practice which for many years +enriched the Louvre and only ceased with the capture of Paris +in 1814.</p> + +<p><a name="ft12a" id="ft12a" href="#fa12a"><span class="fn">12</span></a> See C. von B.-K., <i>Geist und Stoff</i>, pp. 449-451.</p> + +<p><a name="ft13a" id="ft13a" href="#fa13a"><span class="fn">13</span></a> The assumption by later critics (Clausewitz even included) +that the “flank position” held by these forces relatively to the +main armies in Italy and Germany was their <i>raison d’être</i> is unsupported +by contemporary evidence.</p> + +<p><a name="ft14a" id="ft14a" href="#fa14a"><span class="fn">14</span></a> For this expedition, which was repulsed by Brune in the battle +of Castricum, see Fortescue’s <i>Hist. of the British Army</i>, vol. iv., and +Sachot’s <i>Brune en Hollande</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="ft15a" id="ft15a" href="#fa15a"><span class="fn">15</span></a> He afterwards appointed Berthier to command the Army of +Reserve, but himself accompanied it and directed it, using Berthier +as chief of staff.</p> + +<p><a name="ft16a" id="ft16a" href="#fa16a"><span class="fn">16</span></a> Only one division of the main body used the Little St Bernard.</p> + +<p><a name="ft17a" id="ft17a" href="#fa17a"><span class="fn">17</span></a> When he made his decision he was unaware that Béthencourt +had been held up at Arona.</p> + +<p><a name="ft18a" id="ft18a" href="#fa18a"><span class="fn">18</span></a> This may be accounted for by the fact that Napoleon’s mind +was not yet definitively made up when his advanced guard had already +begun to climb the St Bernard (12th). Napoleon’s instructions for +Moncey were written on the 14th. The magazines, too, had to be +provided and placed before it was known whether Moreau’s detachment +would be forthcoming.</p> + +<p><a name="ft19a" id="ft19a" href="#fa19a"><span class="fn">19</span></a> Six guns had by now passed Fort Bard and four of these were with +Murat and Duhesme, two with Lannes.</p> + +<p><a name="ft20a" id="ft20a" href="#fa20a"><span class="fn">20</span></a> It is supposed that the foreign spies at Dijon sent word to their +various employers that the Army was a bogy. In fact a great part +of it never entered Dijon at all, and the troops reviewed there by +Bonaparte were only conscripts and details. By the time that the +veteran divisions from the west and Paris arrived, either the spies +had been ejected or their news was sent off too late to be of use.</p> + +<p><a name="ft21a" id="ft21a" href="#fa21a"><span class="fn">21</span></a> On the strength of a report, false as it turned out, that the +Austrian rearguard had broken the bridges of the Bormida.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRENCH WEST AFRICA<a name="ar5" id="ar5"></a></span> (<i>L’Afrique occidentale française</i>), +the common designation of the following colonies of France:—(1) +Senegal, (2) Upper Senegal and Niger, (3) Guinea, (4) the +Ivory Coast, (5) Dahomey; of the territory of Mauretania, and +of a large portion of the Sahara. The area is estimated at nearly +2,000,000 sq. m., of which more than half is Saharan territory. +The countries thus grouped under the common designation +French West Africa comprise the greater part of the continent +west of the Niger delta (which is British territory) and south of the +tropic of Cancer. It embraces the upper and middle course of +the Niger, the whole of the basin of the Senegal and the south-western +part of the Sahara. Its most northern point on the coast +is Cape Blanco, and it includes Cape Verde, the most westerly +point of Africa. Along the Guinea coast the French possessions +are separated from one another by colonies of Great Britain and +other powers, but in the interior they unite not only with one +another but with the hinterlands of Algeria and the French +Congo.</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:850px; height:599px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img204.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="noind f80"><a href="images/img204a.jpg">(Click to enlarge.)</a></p> + +<p class="pt2">In physical characteristics French West Africa presents three +types: (1) a dense forest region succeeding a narrow coast belt +greatly broken by lagoons; (2) moderately elevated and fertile +plateaus, generally below 2000 ft., such as the region enclosed +in the great bend of the Niger; (3) north of the Senegal and Niger, +the desert lands forming part of the Sahara (<i>q.v.</i>). The most +elevated districts are Futa Jallon, whence rise the Senegal, +Gambia and Niger, and Gon—both massifs along the south-western +edge of the plateau lands, containing heights of 5000 +to 6000 ft. or more. Among the chief towns are Timbuktu and +Jenné on the Niger, Porto Novo in Dahomey, and St Louis and +Dakar in Senegal, Dakar being an important naval and commercial +port. The inhabitants are for the most part typical +Negroes, with in Senegal and in the Sahara an admixture of +Berber and Arab tribes. In the upper Senegal and Futa Jallon +large numbers of the inhabitants are Fula. The total population +of French West Africa is estimated at about 13,000,000. The +European inhabitants number about 12,000.</p> + +<p>The French possessions in West Africa have grown by the +extension inland of coast colonies, each having an independent +origin. They were first brought under one general government +in 1895, when they were placed under the supervision of the +governor of Senegal, whose title was altered to meet the new +situation. Between that date and 1905 various changes in the +areas and administrations of the different colonies were made, +involving the disappearance of the protectorates and military +territories known as French Sudan and dependent on Senegal. +These were partly absorbed in the coast colonies, whilst the central +portion became the colony of Upper Senegal and Niger. At +the same time the central government was freed from the direct +administration of the Senegal and Niger countries (Decrees of +Oct. 1902 and Oct. 1904). Over the whole of French West +Africa is a governor-general, whose headquarters are at Dakar.<a name="fa1b" id="fa1b" href="#ft1b"><span class="sp">1</span></a> +He is assisted by a government council, composed of high +functionaries, including the lieutenant-governors of all colonies +under his control. The central government, like all other French +colonial administrations, is responsible, not to the colonists, but +to the home government, and its constitution is alterable at +will by presidential decree save in matters on which the chambers +have expressly legislated. To it is confided financial control +over the colonies, responsibility for the public debt, the direction +of the departments of education and agriculture, and the carrying +out of works of general utility. It alone communicates with +the home authorities. Its expenses are met by the duties levied +on goods and vessels entering and leaving any port of French +West Africa. It may make advances to the colonies under its +care, and may, in case of need, demand from them contributions +to the central exchequer. The administration of justice is +centralized and uniform for all French West Africa. The court +of appeal sits at Dakar. There is also a uniform system of land +registration adopted in 1906 and based on that in force in +Australia. Subject to the limitations indicated the five colonies +enjoy autonomy. The territory of Mauretania is administered +by a civil commissioner under the direct control of the governor-general. +The colony of Senegal is represented in the French +parliament by one deputy.</p> + +<p>Since the changes in administration effected in 1895 the commerce +of French West Africa has shown a steady growth, the +volume of external trade increasing in the ten years 1895-1904 +from £3,151,094 to £6,238,091. In 1907 the value of the trade +was £7,097,000; of this 53% was with France. Apart from +military expenditure, about £600,000 a year, which is borne by +France, French West Africa is self-supporting. The general +budget for 1906 balanced at £1,356,000. There is a public debt +of some £11,000,000, mainly incurred for works of general utility.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Senegal</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">French Guinea</a></span>, <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Ivory Coast</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Dahomey</a></span>. For +Anglo-French boundaries east of the Niger see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Sahara</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Nigeria</a></span>. +For the constitutional connexion between the colonies and France +see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">France</a></span>: <i>Colonies</i>. An account of the economic situation of the +colonies is given by G. François in <i>Le Gouvernement général de +l’Afrique occidentale française</i> (Paris, 1908). Consult also the annual +<i>Report on the Trade, Agriculture, &c. of French West Africa</i> issued by +the British foreign office. A map of French West Africa by A. +Meunier and E. Barralier (6 sheets on the scale 1:2,000,000) was +published in Paris, 1903.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1b" id="ft1b" href="#fa1b"><span class="fn">1</span></a> The organization of the new government was largely the work of +E. N. Roume (b. 1858), governor-general 1902-1907, an able and +energetic official, formerly director of Asian affairs at the colonial +ministry.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRENTANI,<a name="ar6" id="ar6"></a></span> one of the ancient Samnite tribes which formed +an independent community on the east coast of Italy. They +entered the Roman alliance after their capital, Frentrum, was +taken by the Romans in 305 or 304 <span class="scs">B.C.</span> (Livy ix. 16. 45). This +town either changed its name or perished some time after the +middle of the 3rd century <span class="scs">B.C.</span>, when it was issuing coins of its +own with an Oscan legend. The town Larinum, which belonged +to the same people (Pliny, <i>Nat. Hist.</i> iii. 103), became latinized +before 200 <span class="scs">B.C.</span>, as its coins of that epoch bear a legend—LARINOR(VM)—which +cannot reasonably be treated as anything +but Latin. Several Oscan inscriptions survive from the +neighbourhood of Vasto (anc. <i>Histonium</i>), which was in the +Frentane area.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>On the forms of the name, and for further details see R. S. Conway, +<i>Italic Dialects</i>, p. 206 ff and p. 212: for the coins id. No. 195-196.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREPPEL, CHARLES ÉMILE<a name="ar7" id="ar7"></a></span> (1827-1891), French bishop and +politician, was born at Oberehnheim (Obernai), Alsace, on the 1st +of June 1827. He was ordained priest in 1849 and for a short +time taught history at the seminary of Strassburg, where he had +previously received his clerical training. In 1854 he was appointed +professor of theology at the Sorbonne, and became +known as a successful preacher. He went to Rome in 1869, at +the instance of Pius IX., to assist in the steps preparatory to the +promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility. He was consecrated +bishop of Angers in 1870. During the Franco-German +war Freppel organized a body of priests to minister to the French +prisoners in Germany, and penned an eloquent protest to the +emperor William I. against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. +In 1880 he was elected deputy for Brest and continued to +represent it until his death. Being the only priest in the Chamber +of Deputies since the death of Dupanloup, he became the chief +parliamentary champion of the Church, and, though no orator, +was a frequent speaker. On all ecclesiastical affairs Freppel +voted with the Royalist and Catholic party, yet on questions in +which French colonial prestige was involved, such as the expedition +to Tunis, Tong-King, Madagascar (1881, 1883-85), he +supported the government of the day. He always remained a +staunch Royalist and went so far as to oppose Leo XIII.’s policy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id="page206"></a>206</span> +of conciliating the Republic. He died at Angers on the 12th of +December 1891. Freppel’s historical and theological works +form 30 vols., the best known of which are: <i>Les Pères apostoliques +et leur époque</i> (1859); <i>Les Apologistes chrétiens au II<span class="sp">e</span> siècle</i> +(2 vols., 1860); <i>Saint Irénée et l’éloquence chrétienne dans la Gaule +aux deux premiers siècles</i> (1861); <i>Tertullien</i> (2 vols., 1863); +<i>Saint Cyprien et l’Église d’Afrique</i> (1864); <i>Clément d’Alexandrie</i> +(1865); <i>Origène</i> (2 vols., 1867).</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>There are interesting lives by E. Cornut (Paris, 1893) and F. +Charpentier (Angers, 1904).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRERE, SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD<a name="ar8" id="ar8"></a></span> (1815-1884), +British administrator, born at Clydach in Brecknockshire, on +the 29th of March 1815, was the son of Edward Frere, a member +of an old east county family, and a nephew of John Hookham +Frere, of <i>Anti-Jacobin</i> and <i>Aristophanes</i> fame. After leaving +Haileybury, Bartle Frere was appointed a writer in the Bombay +civil service in 1834, and went out to India by way of Egypt, +crossing the Red Sea in an open boat from Kosseir to Mokha, +and sailing thence to Bombay in an Arab dhow. Having passed +his examination in the native languages, he was appointed +assistant collector at Poona in 1835. There he did valuable +work and was in 1842 chosen as private secretary to Sir George +Arthur, governor of Bombay. Two years later he became +political resident at the court of the rajah of Satara, where he +did much to benefit the country by the development of its communications. +On the rajah’s death in 1848 he administered the +province both before and after its formal annexation in 1849. +In 1850 he was appointed chief commissioner of Sind, and took +ample advantage of the opportunities afforded him of developing +the province. He pensioned off the dispossessed amirs, improved +the harbour at Karachi, where he also established municipal +buildings, a museum and barracks, instituted fairs, multiplied +roads, canals and schools.</p> + +<p>Returning to India in 1857 after a well-earned rest, Frere +was greeted at Karachi with news of the mutiny. His rule had +been so successful that he felt he could answer for the internal +peace of his province. He therefore sent his only European +regiment to Multan, thus securing that strong fortress against +the rebels, and sent further detachments to aid Sir John Lawrence +in the Punjab. The 178 British soldiers who remained in Sind +proved sufficient to extinguish such insignificant outbreaks +as occurred. His services were fully recognized by the Indian +authorities, and he received the thanks of both houses of +parliament and was made K.C.B. He became a member of the +viceroy’s council in 1859, and was especially serviceable in +financial matters. In 1862 he was appointed governor of +Bombay, where he effected great improvements, such as the +demolition of the old ramparts, and the erection of handsome +public offices upon a portion of the space, the inauguration of +the university buildings and the improvement of the harbour. +He established the Deccan College at Poona, as well as a college +for instructing natives in civil engineering. The prosperity—due +to the American Civil War—which rendered these developments +possible brought in its train a speculative mania, which +led eventually to the disastrous failure of the Bombay Bank +(1866), an affair in which, from neglecting to exercise such means +of control as he possessed, Frere incurred severe and not wholly +undeserved censure. In 1867 he returned to England, was made +G.C.S.I., and received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge; +he was also appointed a member of the Indian council.</p> + +<p>In 1872 he was sent by the foreign office to Zanzibar to +negotiate a treaty with the sultan, Seyyid Burghash, for the +suppression of the slave traffic. In 1875 he accompanied the +prince of Wales to Egypt and India. The tour was beyond +expectation successful, and to Frere, from Queen Victoria +downwards, came acknowledgments of the service he had +rendered in piloting the expedition. He was asked by Lord +Beaconsfield to choose between being made a baronet or G.C.B. +He chose the former, but the queen bestowed both honours +upon him. But the greatest service that Frere undertook on +behalf of his country was to be attempted not in Asia, but in +Africa. Sir Bartle landed at Cape Town as high commissioner +of South Africa on the 31st of March 1877. He had been chosen +by Lord Carnarvon in the previous October as the statesman +most capable of carrying his scheme of confederation into effect, +and within two years it was hoped that he would be the first +governor of the South African Dominion. He went out in +harmony with the aims and enthusiasm of his chief, “hoping to +crown by one great constructive effort the work of a bright and +noble life.” In this hope he was disappointed. As he stated +at the close of his high commissionership, a great mistake seemed +to have been made in trying to hasten what could only result +from natural growth, and the state of South Africa during Frere’s +tenure of office was inimical to such growth.</p> + +<p>Discord or a policy of blind drifting seemed to be the alternatives +presented to Frere upon his arrival at the Cape. He +chose the former as the less dangerous, and the first year of +his sway was marked by a Kaffir war on the one hand and by a +rupture with the Cape (Molteno-Merriman) ministry on the +other. The Transkei Kaffirs were subjugated early in 1878 by +General Thesiger (the 2nd Lord Chelmsford) and a small force +of regular and colonial troops. The constitutional difficulty +was solved by Frere dismissing his obstructive cabinet and +entrusting the formation of a ministry to Mr (afterwards Sir) +Gordon Sprigg. Frere emerged successfully from a year of crisis, +but the advantage was more than counterbalanced by the +resignation of Lord Carnarvon early in 1878, at a time when +Frere required the steadiest and most unflinching support. He +had reached the conclusion that there was a widespread insurgent +spirit pervading the natives, which had its focus and strength +in the celibate military organization of Cetywayo and in the +prestige which impunity for the outrages he had committed +had gained for the Zulu king in the native mind. That organization +and that evil prestige must be put an end to, if possible +by moral pressure, but otherwise by force. Frere reiterated +these views to the colonial office, where they found a general +acceptance. When, however, Frere undertook the responsibility +of forwarding, in December 1878, an ultimatum to Cetywayo, +the home government abruptly discovered that a native war +in South Africa was inopportune and raised difficulties about +reinforcements. Having entrusted to Lord Chelmsford the +enforcement of the British demands, Frere’s immediate responsibility +ceased. On the 11th of January 1879 the British troops +crossed the Tugela, and fourteen days later the disaster of Isandhlwana +was reported; and Frere, attacked and censured in the +House of Commons, was but feebly defended by the government. +Lord Beaconsfield, it appears, supported Frere; the majority +of the cabinet were inclined to recall him. The result was the +unsatisfactory compromise by which he was censured and begged +to stay on. Frere wrote an elaborate justification of his conduct, +which was adversely commented on by the colonial secretary +(Sir Michael Hicks Beach), who “did not see why Frere should +take notice of attacks; and as to the war, all African wars had +been unpopular.” Frere’s rejoinder was that no other sufficient +answer had been made to his critics, and that he wished to place +one on record. “Few may now agree with my view as to the +necessity of the suppression of the Zulu rebellion. Few, I fear, +in this generation. But unless my countrymen are much changed, +they will some day do me justice. I shall not leave a name to be +permanently dishonoured.”</p> + +<p>The Zulu trouble and the disaffection that was brewing in +the Transvaal reacted upon each other in the most disastrous +manner. Frere had borne no part in the actual annexation of +the Transvaal, which was announced by Sir Theophilus Shepstone +a few days after the high commissioner’s arrival at Cape Town. +The delay in giving the country a constitution afforded a pretext +for agitation to the malcontent Boers, a rapidly increasing +minority, while the reverse at Isandhlwana had lowered British +prestige. Owing to the Kaffir and Zulu wars Sir Bartle had +hitherto been unable to give his undivided attention to the state +of things in the Transvaal. In April 1879 he was at last able to +visit that province, and the conviction was forced upon him +that the government had been unsatisfactory in many ways. +The country was very unsettled. A large camp, numbering +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>207</span> +4000 disaffected Boers, had been formed near Pretoria, and +they were terrorizing the country. Frere visited them unarmed +and practically alone. Even yet all might have been well, for +he won the Boers’ respect and liking. On the condition that the +Boers dispersed, Frere undertook to present their complaints +to the British government, and to urge the fulfilment of the +promises that had been made to them. They parted with mutual +good feeling, and the Boers did eventually disperse—on the very +day upon which Frere received the telegram announcing the +government’s censure. He returned to Cape Town, and his +journey back was in the nature of a triumph. But bad news +awaited him at Government House—on the 1st of June 1879 the +prince imperial had met his death in Zululand—and a few hours +later Frere heard that the government of the Transvaal and +Natal, together with the high commissionership in the eastern +part of South Africa, had been transferred from him to Sir +Garnet Wolseley.</p> + +<p>When Gladstone’s ministry came into office in the spring of +1880, Lord Kimberley had no intention of recalling Frere. In +June, however, a section of the Liberal party memorialized +Gladstone to remove him, and the prime minister weakly complied +(1st August 1880). Upon his return Frere replied to the +charges relating to his conduct respecting Afghanistan as well as +South Africa, previously preferred in Gladstone’s Midlothian +speeches, and was preparing a fuller vindication when he died +at Wimbledon from the effect of a severe chill on the 29th of May +1884. He was buried in St Paul’s, and in 1888 a statue of Frere +upon the Thames embankment was unveiled by the prince of +Wales. Frere edited the works of his uncle, Hookham Frere, +and the popular story-book, <i>Old Deccan Days</i>, written by his +daughter, Mary Frere. He was three times president of the +Royal Asiatic Society.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>His <i>Life and Correspondence</i>, by John Martineau, was published +in 1895. For the South African anti-confederation view, see P. A. +Molteno’s <i>Life and Times of Sir John Charles Molteno</i> (2 vols., London +1900). See also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">South Africa</a></span>: <i>History</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM<a name="ar9" id="ar9"></a></span> (1769-1846), English diplomatist +and author, was born in London on the 21st of May 1769. His +father, John Frere, a gentleman of a good Suffolk family, had been +educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and would have been +senior wrangler in 1763 but for the redoubtable competition of +Paley; his mother, daughter of John Hookham, a rich London +merchant, was a lady of no small culture, accustomed to amuse +her leisure with verse-writing. His father’s sister Eleanor, who +married Sir John Fenn (1739-1794), the learned editor of the +<i>Paston Letters</i>, wrote various educational works for children +under the pseudonyms “Mrs Lovechild” and “Mrs Teachwell.” +Young Frere was sent to Eton in 1785, and there began an +intimacy with Canning which greatly affected his after life. +From Eton he went to his father’s college at Cambridge, and +graduated B.A. in 1792 and M.A. in 1795. He entered public +service in the foreign office under Lord Grenville, and sat from +1796 to 1802 as member of parliament for the close borough of +West Looe in Cornwall.</p> + +<p>From his boyhood he had been a warm admirer of Pitt, and +along with Canning he entered heart and soul into the defence +of his government, and contributed freely to the pages of the +<i>Anti-Jacobin</i>, edited by Gifford. He contributed, in collaboration +with Canning, “The Loves of the Triangles,” a clever +parody of Darwin’s “Loves of the Plants,” “The Needy Knife-Grinder” +and “The Rovers.” On Canning’s removal to the +board of trade in 1799 he succeeded him as under-secretary of +state; in October 1800 he was appointed envoy extraordinary +and plenipotentiary to Lisbon; and in September 1802 he was +transferred to Madrid, where he remained for two years. He was +recalled on account of a personal disagreement he had with the +duke of Alcudia, but the ministry showed its approval of his +action by a pension of £1700 a year. He was made a member of +the privy council in 1805; in 1807 he was appointed plenipotentiary +at Berlin, but the mission was abandoned, and Frere +was again sent to Spain in 1808 as plenipotentiary to the Central +Junta. The condition of Spain rendered his position a very +responsible and difficult one. When Napoleon began to advance +on Madrid it became a matter of supreme importance to decide +whether Sir John Moore, who was then in the north of Spain, +should endeavour to anticipate the occupation of the capital or +merely make good his retreat, and if he did retreat whether he +should do so by Portgual or by Galicia. Frere was strongly of +opinion that the bolder was the better course, and he urged his +views on Sir John Moore with an urgent and fearless persistency +that on one occasion at least overstepped the limits of his +commission. After the disastrous retreat to Corunna, the public +accused Frere of having by his advice endangered the British +army, and though no direct censure was passed upon his conduct +by the government, he was recalled, and the marquess of +Wellesley was appointed in his place.</p> + +<p>Thus ended Frere’s public life. He afterwards refused to undertake +an embassy to St Petersburg, and twice declined the honour +of a peerage. In 1816 he married Elizabeth Jemima, dowager +countess of Erroll, and in 1820, on account of her failing health, +he went with her to the Mediterranean. There he finally settled +in Malta, and though he afterwards visited England more than +once, the rest of his life was for the most part spent in the island +of his choice. In quiet retirement he devoted himself to literature, +studied his favourite Greek authors, and taught himself +Hebrew and Maltese. His hospitality was well known to many +an English guest, and his charities and courtesies endeared him +to his Maltese neighbours. He died at the Pietà Valetta on +the 7th of January 1846. Frere’s literary reputation now rests +entirely upon his spirited verse translations of Aristophanes, +which remain in many ways unrivalled. The principles according +to which he conducted his task were elucidated in an article on +Mitchell’s <i>Aristophanes</i>, which he contributed to <i>The Quarterly +Review</i>, vol. xxiii. The translations of <i>The Acharnians</i>, <i>The +Knights</i>, <i>The Birds</i>, and <i>The Frogs</i> were privately printed, and +were first brought into general notice by Sir G. Cornewall Lewis +in the <i>Classical Museum</i> for 1847. They were followed some +time after by <i>Theognis Restitutus, or the personal history of the +poet Theognis, reduced from an analysis of his existing fragments</i>. +In 1817 he published a mock-heroic Arthurian poem entitled +<i>Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by +William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket in Suffolk, +Harness and Collar Makers, intended to comprise the most interesting +particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table</i>. +William Tennant in <i>Anster Fair</i> had used the <i>ottava rima</i> as a +vehicle for semi-burlesque poetry five years earlier, but Frere’s +experiment is interesting because Byron borrowed from it the +measure that he brought to perfection in <i>Don Juan</i>.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Frere’s complete works were published in 1871, with a memoir +by his nephews, W. E. and Sir Bartle Frere, and reached a second +edition in 1874. Compare also Gabrielle Festing, <i>J. H. Frere and his +Friends</i> (1899).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÈRE, PIERRE ÉDOUARD<a name="ar10" id="ar10"></a></span> (1819-1886), French painter, +studied under Delaroche, entered the École des Beaux-Arts in +1836 and exhibited first at the Salon in 1843. The marked +sentimental tendency of his art makes us wonder at Ruskin’s +enthusiastic eulogy which finds in Frère’s work “the depth of +Wordsworth, the grace of Reynolds, and the holiness of Angelico.” +What we can admire in his work is his accomplished craftsmanship +and the intimacy and tender homeliness of his conception. +Among his chief works are the two paintings, “Going to School” +and “Coming from School,” “The Little Glutton” (his first +exhibited picture) and “<i>L’Exercice</i>” (Mr Astor’s collection). +A journey to Egypt in 1860 resulted in a small series of Orientalist +subjects, but the majority of Frère’s paintings deal with the life +of the kitchen, the workshop, the dwellings of the humble, and +mainly with the pleasures and little troubles of the young, +which the artist brings before us with humour and sympathy. +He was one of the most popular painters of domestic genre in +the middle of the 19th century.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÈRE-ORBAN, HUBERT JOSEPH WALTHER<a name="ar11" id="ar11"></a></span> (1812-1896), +Belgian statesman, was born at Liége on the 24th of April 1812. +His family name was Frère, to which on his marriage he added +his wife’s name of Orban. After studying law in Paris, he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>208</span> +practised as a barrister at Liége, took a prominent part in the +Liberal movement, and in June 1847 was returned to the Chamber +as member for Liége. In August of the same year he was appointed +minister of public works in the Rogier cabinet, and from +1848 to 1852 was minister of finance. He founded the Banque +Nationale and the Caisse d’Épargne, abolished the newspaper +tax, reduced the postage, and modified the customs duties as +a preliminary to a decided free-trade policy. The Liberalism +of the cabinet, in which Frère-Orban exercised an influence +hardly inferior to that of Rogier, was, however, distasteful to +Napoleon III. Frère-Orban, to facilitate the negotiations for +a new commercial treaty, conceded to France a law of copyright, +which proved highly unpopular in Belgium, and he resigned +office, soon followed by the rest of the cabinet. His work +<i>La Mainmorte et la charité</i> (1854-1857), published under the +pseudonym of “Jean van Damme,” contributed greatly to +restore his party to power in 1857, when he again became +minister of finance. He now embodied his free-trade principles in +commercial treaties with England and France, and abolished the +<i>octroi</i> duties and the tolls on the national roads. He resigned +in 1861 on the gold question, but soon resumed office, and in +1868 succeeded Rogier as prime minister. In 1869 he defeated +the attempt of France to gain control of the Luxemburg railways, +but, despite this service to his country, fell from power at the +elections of 1870. He returned to office in 1878 as president of +the council and foreign minister. He provoked the bitter opposition +of the Clerical party by his law of 1879 establishing secular +primary education, and in 1880 went so far as to break off diplomatic +relations with the Vatican. He next found himself at +variance with the Radicals, whose leader, Janson, moved the +introduction of universal suffrage. Frère-Orban, while rejecting +the proposal, conceded an extension of the franchise (1883); +but the hostility of the Radicals, and the discontent caused by a +financial crisis, overthrew the government at the elections of +1884. Frère-Orban continued to take an active part in politics +as leader of the Liberal opposition till 1894, when he failed to +secure re-election. He died at Brussels on the 2nd of January +1896. Besides the work above mentioned, he published <i>La +Question monétaire</i> (1874); <i>La Question monétaire en Belgique</i> +in 1889; <i>Échange de vues entre MM. Frère-Orban et E. de Laveleye</i> +(1890); and <i>La Révision constitutionnelle en Belgique et ses +conséquences</i> (1894). He was also the author of numerous +pamphlets, among which may be mentioned his last work, +<i>La Situation présente</i> (1895).</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÉRET, NICOLAS<a name="ar12" id="ar12"></a></span> (1688-1749), French scholar, was born +at Paris on the 15th of February 1688. His father was <i>procureur</i> +to the parlement of Paris, and destined him to the profession +of the law. His first tutors were the historian Charles Rollin +and Father Desmolets (1677-1760). Amongst his early studies +history, chronology and mythology held a prominent place. +To please his father he studied law and began to practise at the +bar; but the force of his genius soon carried him into his own +path. At nineteen he was admitted to a society of learned men +before whom he read memoirs on the religion of the Greeks, +on the worship of Bacchus, of Ceres, of Cybele and of Apollo. +He was hardly twenty-six years of age when he was admitted +as pupil to the Academy of Inscriptions. One of the first +memoirs which he read was a learned and critical discourse, +<i>Sur l’origine des Francs</i> (1714). He maintained that the Franks +were a league of South German tribes and not, according to the +legend then almost universally received, a nation of free men +deriving from Greece or Troy, who had kept their civilization +intact in the heart of a barbarous country. These sensible +views excited great indignation in the Abbé Vertot, who denounced +Fréret to the government as a libeller of the monarchy. +A <i>lettre de cachet</i> was issued, and Fréret was sent to the Bastille. +During his three months of confinement he devoted himself to +the study of the works of Xenophon, the fruit of which appeared +later in his memoir on the <i>Cyropaedia</i>. From the time of his +liberation in March 1715 his life was uneventful. In January +1716 he was received associate of the Academy of Inscriptions, +and in December 1742 he was made perpetual secretary. He +worked without intermission for the interests of the Academy, +not even claiming any property in his own writings, which were +printed in the <i>Recueil de l’académie des inscriptions</i>. The list +of his memoirs, many of them posthumous, occupies four columns +of the <i>Nouvelle Biographie générale</i>. They treat of history, +chronology, geography, mythology and religion. Throughout +he appears as the keen, learned and original critic; examining +into the comparative value of documents, distinguishing between +the mythical and the historical, and separating traditions with +an historical element from pure fables and legends. He rejected +the extreme pretensions of the chronology of Egypt and China, +and at the same time controverted the scheme of Sir Isaac +Newton as too limited. He investigated the mythology not only +of the Greeks, but of the Celts, the Germans, the Chinese and +the Indians. He was a vigorous opponent of the theory that +the stories of mythology may be referred to historic originals. +He also suggested that Greek mythology owed much to the +Phoenicians and Egyptians. He was one of the first scholars of +Europe to undertake the study of the Chinese language; and in +this he was engaged at the time of his committal to the Bastille. +He died in Paris on the 8th of March 1749.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Long after his death several works of an atheistic character were +falsely attributed to him, and were long believed to be his. The most +famous of these spurious works are the <i>Examen critique des apologistes +de la religion chrétienne</i> (1766), and the <i>Lettre de Thrasybule à Leucippe</i>, +printed in London about 1768. A very defective and inaccurate +edition of Fréret’s works was published in 1796-1799. A new and +complete edition was projected by Champollion-Figeac, but of this +only the first volume appeared (1825). It contains a life of Fréret. +His manuscripts, after passing through many hands, were deposited +in the library of the Institute. The best account of his works is +“Examen critique des ouvrages composés par Fréret” in C. A. +Walckenaer’s <i>Recueil des notices</i>, &c. (1841-1850). See also Quérard’s +<i>France littéraire</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÉRON, ÉLIE CATHERINE<a name="ar13" id="ar13"></a></span> (1719-1776), French critic and +controversialist, was born at Quimper in 1719. He was educated +by the Jesuits, and made such rapid progress in his studies +that before the age of twenty he was appointed professor at the +college of Louis-le-Grand. He became a contributor to the +<i>Observations sur les écrits modernes</i> of the abbé Guyot Desfontaines. +The very fact of his collaboration with Desfontaines, +one of Voltaire’s bitterest enemies, was sufficient to arouse the +latter’s hostility, and although Fréron had begun his career as +one of his admirers, his attitude towards Voltaire soon changed. +Fréron in 1746 founded a similar journal of his own, entitled +<i>Lettres de la Comtesse de</i>.... It was suppressed in 1749, but he +immediately replaced it by <i>Lettres sur quelques écrits de ce temps</i>, +which, with the exception of a short suspension in 1752, on +account of an attack on the character of Voltaire, was continued +till 1754, when it was succeeded by the more ambitious <i>Année +littéraire</i>. His death at Paris on the 10th of March 1776 is said +to have been hastened by the temporary suppression of this +journal. Fréron is now remembered solely for his attacks on +Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists, and by the retaliations they +provoked on the part of Voltaire, who, besides attacking him in +epigrams, and even incidentally in some of his tragedies, directed +against him a virulent satire, <i>Le Pauvre diable</i>, and made him +the principal personage in a comedy <i>L’Écossaise</i>, in which the +journal of Fréron is designated <i>L’Âne littéraire</i>. A further +attack on Fréron entitled <i>Anecdotes sur Fréron</i> ... (1760), +published anonymously, is generally attributed to Voltaire.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Fréron was the author of <i>Ode sur la bataille de Fontenoy</i> (1745); +<i>Histoire de Marie Stuart</i> (1742, 2 vols.); and <i>Histoire de l’empire +d’Allemagne</i>, (1771, 8 vols.). See Ch. Nisard, <i>Les Ennemis de +Voltaire</i> (1853); Despois, <i>Journalistes et journaux du XVIII<span class="sp">e</span> +siècle</i>; Barthélemy, <i>Les confessions de Fréron</i>: Ch. Monselet, +<i>Fréron, ou l’illustre critique</i> (1864); <i>Fréron, sa vie, souvenirs</i>, &c. +(1876).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÉRON, LOUIS MARIE STANISLAS<a name="ar14" id="ar14"></a></span> (1754-1802), French +revolutionist, son of the preceding, was born at Paris on the 17th +of August 1754. His name was, on the death of his father, +attached to <i>L’Année littéraire</i>, which was continued till 1790 +and edited successively by the abbés G. M. Royou and J. L. +Geoffroy. On the outbreak of the revolution Fréron, who was a +schoolfellow of Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, established +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>209</span> +the violent journal <i>L’Orateur du peuple</i>. Commissioned, along +with Barras in 1793, to establish the authority of the convention +at Marseilles and Toulon, he distinguished himself +in the atrocity of his reprisals, but both afterwards joined the +Thermidoriens, and Fréron became the leader of the <i>jeunesse +dorée</i> and of the Thermidorian reaction. He brought about the +accusation of Fouquier-Tinville, and of J. B. Carrier, the deportation +of B. Barère, and the arrest of the last <i>Montagnards</i>. He +made his paper the official journal of the reactionists, and being +sent by the Directory on a mission of peace to Marseilles he +published in 1796 <i>Mémoire historique sur la réaction royale et +sur les malheurs du midi</i>. He was elected to the council of the +Five Hundred, but not allowed to take his seat. Failing as +suitor for the hand of Pauline Bonaparte, one of Napoleon’s +sisters, he went in 1799 as commissioner to Santo Domingo and +died there in 1802. General V. M. Leclerc, who had married +Pauline Bonaparte, also received a command in Santo Domingo +in 1801, and died in the same year as his former rival.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESCO<a name="ar15" id="ar15"></a></span> (Ital. for <i>cool</i>, “fresh”), a term introduced into +English, both generally (as in such phrases as <i>al fresco</i>, “in the +fresh air”), and more especially as a technical term for a sort +of mural painting on plaster. In the latter sense the Italians +distinguished painting <i>a secco</i> (when the plaster had been allowed +to dry) from <i>a fresco</i> (when it was newly laid and still wet). The +nature and history of fresco-painting is dealt with in the article +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Painting</a></span>.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESCOBALDI, GIROLAMO<a name="ar16" id="ar16"></a></span> (1583-1644), Italian musical +composer, was born in 1583 at Ferrara. Little is known of his +life except that he studied music under Alessandro Milleville, +and owed his first reputation to his beautiful voice. He was +organist at St Peter’s in Rome from 1608 to 1628. According to +Baini no less than 30,000 people flocked to St Peter’s on his first +appearance there. On the 20th of November 1628 he went to +live in Florence, becoming organist to the duke. From December +1633 to March 1643 he was again organist at St Peter’s. But in +the last year of his life he was organist in the parish church of +San Lorenzo in Monte. He died on the 2nd of March 1644, being +buried at Rome in the Church of the Twelve Apostles. Frescobaldi +also excelled as a teacher, Frohberger being the most +distinguished of his pupils. Frescobaldi’s compositions show +the consummate art of the early Italian school, and his works +for the organ more especially are full of the finest devices of +fugal treatment. He also wrote numerous vocal compositions, +such as canzone, motets, hymns, &c., a collection of madrigals +for five voices (Antwerp, 1608) being among the earliest of his +published works.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESENIUS, KARL REMIGIUS<a name="ar17" id="ar17"></a></span> (1818-1897), German chemist, +was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 28th of December 1818. +After spending some time in a pharmacy in his native town, he +entered Bonn University in 1840, and a year later migrated to +Giessen, where he acted as assistant in Liebig’s laboratory, and +in 1843 became assistant professor. In 1845 he was appointed +to the chair of chemistry, physics and technology at the Wiesbaden +Agricultural Institution, and three years later he became +the first director of the chemical laboratory which he induced +the Nassau government to establish at that place. Under his +care this laboratory continuously increased in size and popularity, +a school of pharmacy being added in 1862 (though given up in +1877) and an agricultural research laboratory in 1868. Apart +from his administrative duties Fresenius occupied himself almost +exclusively with analytical chemistry, and the fullness and +accuracy of his text-books on that subject (of which that on +qualitative analysis first appeared in 1841 and that on quantitative +in 1846) soon rendered them standard works. Many of his +original papers were published in the <i>Zeitschrift für analytische +Chemie</i>, which he founded in 1862 and continued to edit till his +death. He died suddenly at Wiesbaden on the 11th of June +1897. In 1881 he handed over the directorship of the agricultural +research station to his son, Remigius Heinrich Fresenius (b. +1847), who was trained under H. Kolbe at Leipzig. Another son, +Theodor Wilhelm Fresenius (b. 1856), was educated at Strassburg +and occupied various positions in the Wiesbaden laboratory.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESHWATER,<a name="ar18" id="ar18"></a></span> a watering place in the Isle of Wight, +England, 12 m. W. by S. of Newport by rail. Pop.(1901) 3306. +It is a scattered township lying on the peninsula west of the +river Var, which forms the western extremity of the island. The +portion known as Freshwater Gate fronts the English Channel +from the strip of low-lying coast interposed between the cliffs +of the peninsula and those of the main part of the island. The +peninsula rises to 397 ft. in Headon Hill, and the cliffs are +magnificent. The western promontory is flanked on the north +by the picturesque Alum Bay, and the lofty detached rocks +known as the Needles lie off it. Farringford House in the parish +was for some time the home of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who is +commemorated by a tablet in All Saints’ church and by a great +cross on the high downs above the town. There are golf links +on the downs.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN JEAN<a name="ar19" id="ar19"></a></span> (1788-1827), French physicist, +the son of an architect, was born at Broglie (Eure) on the 10th +of May 1788. His early progress in learning was slow, and when +eight years old he was still unable to read. At the age of thirteen +he entered the École Centrale in Caen, and at sixteen and a half +the École Polytechnique, where he acquitted himself with distinction. +Thence he went to the École des Ponts et Chaussées. +He served as an engineer successively in the departments of +Vendée, Drôme and Ille-et-Villaine; but his espousal of the +cause of the Bourbons in 1814 occasioned, on Napoleon’s reaccession +to power, the loss of his appointment. On the second +restoration he obtained a post as engineer in Paris, where much +of his life from that time was spent. His researches in optics, +continued until his death, appear to have been begun about the +year 1814, when he prepared a paper on the aberration of light, +which, however, was not published. In 1818 he read a memoir +on diffraction for which in the ensuing year he received the prize +of the Académie des Sciences at Paris. He was in 1823 unanimously +elected a member of the academy, and in 1825 he +became a member of the Royal Society of London, which in 1827, +at the time of his last illness, awarded him the Rumford medal. +In 1819 he was nominated a commissioner of lighthouses, for +which he was the first to construct compound lenses as substitutes +for mirrors. He died of consumption at Ville-d’Avray, near +Paris, on the 14th of July 1827.</p> + +<p>The undulatory theory of light, first founded upon experimental +demonstration by Thomas Young, was extended to a +large class of optical phenomena, and permanently established +by his brilliant discoveries and mathematical deductions. By +the use of two plane mirrors of metal, forming with each other +an angle of nearly 180°, he avoided the diffraction caused in +the experiment of F. M. Grimaldi (1618-1663) on interference +by the employment of apertures for the transmission of the light, +and was thus enabled in the most conclusive manner to account +for the phenomena of interference in accordance with the +undulatory theory. With D. F. J. Arago he studied the laws +of the interference of polarized rays. Circularly polarized light +he obtained by means of a rhomb of glass, known as “Fresnel’s +rhomb,” having obtuse angles of 126°, and acute angles of 54°. +His labours in the cause of optical science received during his +lifetime only scant public recognition, and some of his papers +were not printed by the Académie des Sciences till many years +after his decease. But, as he wrote to Young in 1824, in him +“that sensibility, or that vanity, which people call love of glory” +had been blunted. “All the compliments,” he says, “that I have +received from Arago, Laplace and Biot never gave me so much +pleasure as the discovery of a theoretic truth, or the confirmation +of a calculation by experiment.”</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Duleau, “Notice sur Fresnel,” <i>Revue ency.</i> t. xxxix.; +Arago, <i>Œuvres complètes</i>, t. i.; and Dr G. Peacock, <i>Miscellaneous +Works of Thomas Young</i>, vol. i.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESNILLO,<a name="ar20" id="ar20"></a></span> a town of the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, 37 m. +N.W. of the city of Zacatecas on a branch of the Santiago river. +Pop. (1900) 6309. It stands on a fertile plain between the Santa +Cruz and Zacatecas ranges, about 7700 ft. above sea-level, has +a temperate climate, and is surrounded by an agricultural +district producing Indian corn and wheat. It is a clean, well-built +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>210</span> +town, whose chief distinction is its school of mines founded +in 1853. Fresnillo has large amalgam works for the reduction +of silver ores. Its silver mines, located in the neighbouring +Proaño hill, were discovered in 1569, and were for a time among +the most productive in Mexico. Since 1833, when their richest +deposits were reached, the output has greatly decreased. There +is a station near on the Mexican Central railway.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESNO,<a name="ar21" id="ar21"></a></span> a city and the county-seat of Fresno county, California, +U.S.A., situated in the San Joaquin valley (altitude +about 300 ft.) near the geographical centre of the state. Pop. +(1880) 1112; (1890) 10,818; (1900) 12,470, of whom 3299 were +foreign-born and 1279 were Asiatics; (1910 census) 24,892. +The city is served by the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, +Topeka & Santa Fé railways. The county is mainly a vast +expanse of naturally arid plains and mountains. The valley is +the scene of an extensive irrigation system, water being brought +(first in 1872-1876) from King’s river, 20 m. distant; in 1905 +500 sq. m. were irrigated. Fresno is in a rich farming country, +producing grains and fruit, and is the only place in America +where Smyrna figs have been grown with success; it is the centre +of the finest raisin country of the state, and has extensive vineyards +and wine-making establishments. The city’s principal +manufacture is preserved (dried) fruits, particularly raisins; +the value of the fruits thus preserved in 1905 was $6,942,440, +being 70.5% of the total value of the factory product in that year +($9,849,001). In 1900-1905 the factory product increased +257.9%, a ratio of increase greater than that of any other city +in the state. In the mountains, lumbering and mining are +important industries; lumber is carried from Shaver in the +mountains to Clovis on the plains by a <b>V</b>-shaped flume 42 m. +long, the waste water from which is ditched for irrigation. The +petroleum field of the county is one of the richest in California. +Fresno is the business and shipping centre of its county and of the +surrounding region. The county was organized in 1856. In +1872 the railway went through, and Fresno was laid out and +incorporated. It became the county-seat in 1874 and was +chartered as a city in 1885.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRESNOY, CHARLES ALPHONSE DU<a name="ar22" id="ar22"></a></span> (1611-1665), French +painter and writer on his art, was born in Paris, son of an apothecary. +He was destined for the medical profession, and well +educated in Latin and Greek; but, having a natural propensity +for the fine arts, he would not apply to his intended vocation, +and was allowed to learn the rudiments of design under Perrier +and Vouet. At the age of twenty-one he went off to Rome, with +no resources; he drew ruins and architectural subjects. After +two years thus spent he re-encountered his old fellow-student +Pierre Mignard, and by his aid obtained some amelioration of his +professional prospects. He studied Raphael and the antique, +went in 1633 to Venice, and in 1656 returned to France. During +two years he was now employed in painting altar-pieces in the +château of Raincy, landscapes, &c. His death was caused by +an attack of apoplexy followed by palsy; he expired at Villiers +le Bel, near Paris. He never married. His pictorial works are +few; they are correct in drawing, with something of the Caracci +in design, and of Titian in colouring, but wanting fire and expression, +and insufficient to keep his name in any eminent repute. +He is remembered now almost entirely as a writer rather than +painter. His Latin poem, <i>De arte graphica</i>, was written during +his Italian sojourn, and embodied his observations on the art +of painting; it may be termed a critical treatise on the practice +of the art, with general advice to students. The precepts are +sound according to the standard of his time; the poetical +merits slender enough. The Latin style is formed chiefly on +Lucretius and Horace. This poem was first published by +Mignard, and has been translated into several languages. In +1684 it was turned into French by Roger de Piles; Dryden +translated the work into English prose; and a rendering into +verse by Mason followed, to which Sir Joshua Reynolds added +some annotations.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRET<a name="ar23" id="ar23"></a></span>. (1) (From O. Eng. <i>fretan</i>, a word common in various +forms to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. <i>fressen</i>, to eat greedily), +properly to devour, hence to gnaw, so used of the slow corroding +action of chemicals, water, &c., and hence, figuratively, to chafe +or irritate. Possibly connected with this word, in sense of rubbing, +is the use of “fret” for a bar on the fingerboard of a banjo, +guitar, or similar musical instruments to mark the fingering. +(2) (Of doubtful origin; possibly from the O. Eng. <i>frætive</i>, ornaments, +but its use is paralleled by the Fr. <i>frette</i>, trellis or lattice), +network, a term used in heraldry for an interlaced figure, but +best known as applied to the decoration used by the Greeks +in their temples and vases: the Greek fret consists of a series +of narrow bands of different lengths, placed at right angles to +one another, and of great variety of design. It is an ornament +which owes its origin to woven fabrics, and is found on the +ceilings of the Egyptian tombs at Benihasan, Siout and elsewhere. +In Greek work it was painted on the abacus of the Doric capital +and probably on the architraves of their temples; when employed +by the Romans it was generally carved; the Propylaea of the +temple at Damascus and the temple at Atil being examples of +the 2nd century. It was carved in large dimensions on some +of the Mexican temples, as for instance on the palace at Mitla +with other decorative bands, all of which would seem to have +been reproductions of woven patterns, and had therefore an +independent origin. It is found in China and Japan, and in the +latter country when painted on lacquer is employed as a fret-diaper, +the bands not being at right angles to one another but +forming acute and obtuse angles. In old English writers a wider +signification was given to it, as it was applied to raised patterns +in plaster oh roofs or ceilings, which were not confined to the +geometrical fret but extended to the modelling of flowers, +leaves and fruit; in such cases the decoration was known as +fret-work. In France the fret is better known as the “meander.”</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREUDENSTADT,<a name="ar24" id="ar24"></a></span> a town of Germany, in the kingdom of +Württemberg, on the right bank of the Murg, 40 m. S.W. from +Stuttgart, on the railway to Hochdorf. Pop. 7000. It has a +Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, some small manufactures +of cloth, furniture, knives, nails and glass, and is +frequented as a climatic health resort. It was founded in 1599 +by Protestant refugees from Salzburg.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREUND, WILHELM<a name="ar25" id="ar25"></a></span> (1806-1894), German philologist and +lexicographer, was born at Kempen in the grand duchy of Posen +on the 27th of January 1806. He studied at Berlin, Breslau and +Halle, and was for twenty years chiefly engaged in private +tuition. From 1855-1870 he was director of the Jewish school +at Gleiwitz in Silesia, and subsequently retired to Breslau, where +he died on the 4th of June 1894. Although chiefly known +for his philological labours, Freund took an important part in +the movement for the emancipation of his Prussian co-religionists, +and the <i>Judengesetz</i> of 1847 was in great measure the result +of his efforts. The work by which he is best known is his <i>Wörterbuch +der lateinischen Sprache</i> (1834-1845), practically the basis +of all Latin-English dictionaries. His <i>Wie studiert man klassische +Philologie?</i> (6th ed., 1903) and <i>Triennium philologicum</i> (2nd ed., +1878-1885) are valuable aids to the classical student.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREWEN, ACCEPTED<a name="ar26" id="ar26"></a></span> (1588-1664), archbishop of York, was +born at Northiam, in Sussex, and educated at Magdalen College, +Oxford, where in 1612 he became a fellow. In 1617 and 1621 +the college allowed him to act as chaplain to Sir John Digby, +ambassador in Spain. At Madrid he preached a sermon which +pleased Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I., and the latter on +his accession appointed Frewen one of his chaplains. In 1625 +he became canon of Canterbury and vice-president of Magdalen +College, and in the following year he was elected president. +He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1628 and 1629, +and again in 1638 and 1639. It was mainly by his instrumentality +that the university plate was sent to the king at York in +1642. Two years later he was consecrated bishop of Lichfield +and Coventry, and resigned his presidentship. Parliament +declared his estates forfeited for treason in 1652, and Cromwell +afterwards set a price on his head. The proclamations, however, +designated him Stephen Frewen, and he was consequently able +to escape into France. At the Restoration he reappeared in +public, and in 1660 he was consecrated archbishop of York. In +1661 he acted as chairman of the Savoy conference.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>211</span></p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREY<a name="ar27" id="ar27"></a></span> (Old Norse, Freyr) son of Njord, one of the chief deities +in the northern pantheon and the national god of the Swedes. +He is the god of fruitfulness, the giver of sunshine and rain, and +thus the source of all prosperity. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Teutonic Peoples</a></span>, +<i>ad fin.</i>)</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYBURG<a name="ar28" id="ar28"></a></span> [<span class="sc">Freyburg an der Unstrut</span>], a town of +Germany, in Prussian Saxony, in an undulating vine-clad +country on the Unstrut, 6 m. N. from Naumberg-on-the-Saale, +on the railway to Artern. Pop. 3200. It has a parish church, +a mixture of Gothic and Romanesque architecture, with a +handsome tower. It is, however, as being the “Mecca” of the +German gymnastic societies that Freyburg is best known. Here +Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), the father of German +gymnastic exercises, lies buried. Over his grave is built the +Turnhalle, with a statue of the “master,” while hard by it the +Jahn Museum in Romanesque style, erected in 1903. Freyburg +produces sparkling wine of good quality and has some other +small manufactures. On a hill commanding the town is the +castle of Neuenburg, built originally in 1062 by Louis the Leaper, +count in Thuringia, but in its present form mainly the work of +the dukes of Saxe-Weissenfels.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYCINET, CHARLES LOUIS DE SAULCES DE<a name="ar29" id="ar29"></a></span> (1828-  ), +French statesman, was born at Foix on the 14th of November +1828. He was educated at the École Polytechnique, and entered +the government service as a mining engineer. In 1858 he was +appointed traffic manager to the Compagnie de chemins de fer +du Midi, a post in which he gave proof of his remarkable talent +for organization, and in 1862 returned to the engineering service +(in which he attained in 1886 the rank of inspector-general). +He was sent on a number of special scientific missions, among +which may be mentioned one to England, on which he wrote +a notable <i>Mémoire sur le travail des femmes et des enfants dans les +manufactures de l’Angleterre</i> (1867). On the establishment of +the Third Republic in September 1870, he offered his services +to Gambetta, was appointed prefect of the department of Tarn-et-Garronne, +and in October became chief of the military cabinet. +It was mainly his powers of organization that enabled Gambetta +to raise army after army to oppose the invading Germans. He +showed himself a strategist of no mean order; but the policy +of dictating operations to the generals in the field was not +attended with happy results. The friction between him and +General d’Aurelle de Paladines resulted in the loss of the advantage +temporarily gained at Orleans, and he was responsible +for the campaign in the east, which ended in the destruction of +Bourbaki’s army. In 1871 he published a defence of his administration +under the title of <i>La Guerre en province pendant le siège de +Paris.</i> He entered the Senate in 1876 as a follower of Gambetta, +and in December 1877 became minister of public works in the +Dufaure cabinet. He carried a great scheme for the gradual +acquisition of the railways by the state and the construction of +new lines at a cost of three milliards, and for the development +of the canal system at a further cost of one milliard. He retained +his post in the ministry of Waddington, whom he succeeded in +December 1879 as president of the council and minister for +foreign affairs. He passed an amnesty for the Communists, +but in attempting to steer a middle course on the question of the +religious associations, lost the support of Gambetta, and resigned +in September 1880. In January 1882 he again became president +of the council and minister for foreign affairs. His refusal to +join England in the bombardment of Alexandria was the death-knell +of French influence in Egypt. He attempted to compromise +by occupying the Isthmus of Suez, but the vote of credit +was rejected in the Chamber by 417 votes to 75, and the ministry +resigned. He returned to office in April 1885 as foreign minister +in the Brisson cabinet, and retained that post when, in January +1886, he succeeded to the premiership. He came into power +with an ambitious programme of internal reform; but except +that he settled the question of the exiled pretenders, his successes +were won chiefly in the sphere of colonial extension. In spite of +his unrivalled skill as a parliamentary tactician, he failed to +keep his party together, and was defeated on 3rd December +1886. In the following year, after two unsuccessful attempts +to construct new ministries he stood for the presidency of the +republic; but the radicals, to whom his opportunism was +distasteful, turned the scale against him by transferring the +votes to M. Sadi Carnot.</p> + +<p>In April 1888 he became minister of war in the Floquet cabinet—the +first civilian since 1848 to hold that office. His services +to France in this capacity were the crowning achievement of his +life, and he enjoyed the conspicuous honour of holding his office +without a break for five years through as many successive +administrations—those of Floquet and Tirard, his own fourth +ministry (March 1890-February 1892), and the Loubet and +Ribot ministries. To him were due the introduction of the +three-years’ service and the establishment of a general staff, +a supreme council of war, and the army commands. His premiership +was marked by heated debates on the clerical question, and +it was a hostile vote on his Bill against the religious associations +that caused the fall of his cabinet. He failed to clear himself +entirely of complicity in the Panama scandals, and in January +1893 resigned the ministry of war. In November 1898 he once +more became minister of war in the Dupuy cabinet, but resigned +office on 6th May 1899. He has published, besides the works +already mentioned, <i>Traité de mécanique rationnelle</i> (1858); <i>De +l’analyse infinitésimale</i> (1860, revised ed., 1881); <i>Des pentes +économiques en chemin de fer</i> (1861); <i>Emploi des eaux d’égout en +agriculture</i> (1869); <i>Principes de l’assainissement des villes and +Traité d’assainissement industriel</i> (1870); <i>Essai sur la philosophie +des sciences</i> (1896); <i>La Question d’Égypte</i> (1905); besides some +remarkable “Pensées” contributed to the <i>Contemporain</i> under +the pseudonym of “Alceste.” In 1882 he was elected a member +of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890 to the French Academy +in succession to Émile Augier.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYCINET, LOUIS CLAUDE DESAULSES DE<a name="ar30" id="ar30"></a></span> (1779-1842), +French navigator, was born at Montélimart, Drôme, on the 7th +of August 1779. In 1793 he entered the French navy. After +taking part in several engagements against the British, he joined +in 1800, along with his brother Louis Henri Freycinet (1777-1840), +who afterwards rose to the rank of admiral, the expedition +sent out under Captain Baudin in the “Naturaliste” and +“Géographe” to explore the south and south-west coasts of +Australia. Much of the ground already gone over by Flinders +was revisited, and new names imposed by this expedition, which +claimed credit for discoveries really made by the English navigator. +An inlet on the coast of West Australia, in 26° S., is +called Freycinet Estuary; and a cape near the extreme south-west +of the same coast also bears the explorer’s name. In 1805 +he returned to Paris, and was entrusted by the government +with the work of preparing the maps and plans of the expedition; +he also completed the narrative, and the whole work appeared +under the title of <i>Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes</i> +(Paris, 1807-1816). In 1817 he commanded the “Uranie,” +in which Arago and others went to Rio de Janeiro, to take a series +of pendulum measurements. This was only part of a larger +scheme for obtaining observations, not only in geography and +ethnology, but in astronomy, terrestrial magnetism, and meteorology, +and for the collection of specimens in natural history. +On this expedition the hydrographic operations were conducted +by Louis Isidore Duperry (1786-1865) who in 1822 was appointed +to the command of the “Coquille,” and during the next three +years carried out scientific explorations in the southern Pacific +and along the coast of South America. For three years +Freycinet cruised about, visiting Australia, the Marianne, +Sandwich, and other Pacific islands, South America, and other +places, and, notwithstanding the loss of the “Uranie” on the +Falkland Islands during the return voyage, returned to France +with fine collections in all departments of natural history, and +with voluminous notes and drawings which form an important +contribution to a knowledge of the countries visited. The +results of this voyage were published under Freycinet’s supervision, +with the title of <i>Voyage autour du monde sur les corvettes +“l’Uranie” et “la Physicienne”</i> in 1824-1844, in 13 quarto +volumes and 4 folio volumes of fine plates and maps. Freycinet +was admitted into the Academy of Sciences in 1825, and was one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>212</span> +of the founders of the Paris Geographical Society. He died at +Freycinet, Drôme, on the 18th of August 1842.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYIA,<a name="ar31" id="ar31"></a></span> the sister of Frey, and the most prominent goddess in +Northern mythology. Her character seems in general to have +resembled that of her brother. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Teutonic Peoples</a></span>, <i>ad fin.</i>)</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYTAG, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH<a name="ar32" id="ar32"></a></span> (1788-1861), +German philologist, was born at Lüneburg on the 19th of +September 1788. After attending school he entered the university +of Göttingen as a student of philology and theology; here +from 1811 to 1813 he acted as a theological tutor, but in the latter +year accepted an appointment as sub-librarian at Königsberg. +In 1815 he became a chaplain in the Prussian army, and in that +capacity visited Paris. On the proclamation of peace he resigned +his chaplaincy, and returned to his researches in Arabic, Persian +and Turkish, studying at Paris under De Sacy. In 1819 he was +appointed to the professorship of oriental languages in the new +university of Bonn, and this post he continued to hold until his +death on the 16th of November 1861.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Besides a compendium of Hebrew grammar (<i>Kurzgefasste Grammatik +der hebräischen Sprache</i>, 1835), and a treatise on Arabic +versification (<i>Darstellung der arabischen Verskunst</i>, 1830), he edited +two volumes of Arabic songs (<i>Hamasae carmina</i>, 1828-1852) and +three of Arabic proverbs (<i>Arabum proverbia</i>, 1838-1843). But his +principal work was the laborious and praiseworthy <i>Lexicon Arabico-latinum</i> +(Halle, 1830-1837), an abridgment of which was published +in 1837.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FREYTAG, GUSTAV<a name="ar33" id="ar33"></a></span> (1816-1895), German novelist, was born +at Kreuzburg, in Silesia, on the 13th of July 1816. After attending +the gymnasium at Öls, he studied philology at the universities +of Breslau and Berlin, and in 1838 took the degree with a remarkable +dissertation, <i>De initiis poëseos scenicae apud Germanos</i>. +In 1839 he settled at Breslau, as <i>Privatdocent</i> in German +language and literature, but devoted his principal attention to +writing for the stage, and achieved considerable success with +the comedy <i>Die Brautfahrt, oder Kunz von der Rosen</i> (1844). +This was followed by a volume of unimportant poems, <i>In +Breslau</i> (1845) and the dramas <i>Die Valentine</i> (1846) and <i>Graf +Waldemar</i> (1847). He at last attained a prominent position +by his comedy, <i>Die Journalisten</i> (1853), one of the best German +comedies of the 19th century. In 1847 he migrated to Berlin, +and in the following year took over, in conjunction with +Julian Schmidt, the editorship of <i>Die Grenzboten</i>, a weekly +journal which, founded in 1841, now became the leading organ of +German and Austrian liberalism. Freytag helped to conduct it +until 1861, and again from 1867 till 1870, when for a short time +he edited a new periodical, <i>Im neuen Reich</i>. His literary fame +was made universal by the publication in 1855 of his novel, +<i>Soll und Haben</i>, which was translated into almost all the languages +of Europe. It was certainly the best German novel of its day, +impressive by its sturdy but unexaggerated realism, and in many +parts highly humorous. Its main purpose is the recommendation +of the German middle class as the soundest element in the nation, +but it also has a more directly patriotic intention in the contrast +which it draws between the homely virtues of the Teuton and the +shiftlessness of the Pole and the rapacity of the Jew. As a +Silesian, Freytag had no great love for his Slavonic neighbours, +and being a native of a province which owed everything to +Prussia, he was naturally an earnest champion of Prussian +hegemony over Germany. His powerful advocacy of this idea +in his <i>Grenzboten</i> gained him the friendship of the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, +whose neighbour he had become, on acquiring the +estate of Siebleben near Gotha. At the duke’s request Freytag +was attached to the staff of the crown prince of Prussia in the +campaign of 1870, and was present at the battles of Wörth and +Sedan. Before this he had published another novel, <i>Die verlorene +Handschrift</i> (1864), in which he endeavoured to do for German +university life what in <i>Soll und Haben</i> he had done for commercial +life. The hero is a young German professor, who is so wrapt up +in his search for a manuscript by Tacitus that he is oblivious +to an impending tragedy in his domestic life. The book was, +however, less successful than its predecessor. Between 1859 and +1867 Freytag published in five volumes <i>Bilder aus der deutschen +Vergangenheit</i>, a most valuable work on popular lines, illustrating +the history and manners of Germany. In 1872 he began a +work with a similar patriotic purpose, <i>Die Ahnen</i>, a series of +historical romances in which he unfolds the history of a German +family from the earliest times to the middle of the 19th century. +The series comprises the following novels, none of which, however, +reaches the level of Freytag’s earlier books. (1) <i>Ingo und Ingraban</i> +(1872), (2) <i>Das Nest der Zaunkönige</i> (1874), (3) <i>Die Brüder +vom deutschen Hause</i> (1875), (4) <i>Marcus König</i> (1876), (5) <i>Die +Geschwister</i> (1878), and (6) in conclusion, <i>Aus einer kleinen Stadt</i> +(1880). Among Freytag’s other works may be noticed <i>Die +Technik des Dramas</i> (1863); an excellent biography of the Baden +statesman <i>Karl Mathy</i> (1869); an autobiography (<i>Erinnerungen +aus meinen Leben</i>, 1887); his <i>Gesammelte Aufsätze</i>, chiefly +reprinted from the <i>Grenzboten</i> (1888); <i>Der Kronprinz und die +deutsche Kaiserkrone</i>; <i>Erinnerungsblätter</i> (1889). He died at +Wiesbaden on the 30th of April 1895.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Freytag’s <i>Gesammelte Werke</i> were published in 22 vols. at Leipzig +(1886-1888); his <i>Vermischte Aufsätze</i> have been edited by E. Elster, +2 vols. (Leipzig, 1901-1903). On Freytag’s life see, besides his +autobiography mentioned above, the lives by C. Alberti (Leipzig, +1890) and F. Seiler (Leipzig, 1898).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIAR<a name="ar34" id="ar34"></a></span> (from the Lat. <i>frater</i>, through the Fr. <i>frère</i>), the +English generic name for members of the mendicant religious +orders. Formerly it was the title given to individual members +of these orders, as Friar Laurence (in <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>), but this +is not now common. In England the chief orders of friars were +distinguished by the colour of their habit: thus the Franciscans +or Minors were the Grey Friars; the Dominicans or Preachers +were the Black Friars (from their black mantle over a white +habit), and the Carmelites were the White Friars (from their +white mantle over a brown habit): these, together with the +Austin Friars or Hermits, formed the four great mendicant +orders—Chaucer’s “alle the ordres foure.” Besides the four +great orders of friars, the Trinitarians (<i>q.v.</i>), though really +canons, were in England called Trinity Friars or Red Friars; the +Crutched or Crossed Friars were often identified with them, but +were really a distinct order; there were also a number of lesser +orders of friars, many of which were suppressed by the second +council of Lyons in 1274. Detailed information on these orders +and on their position in England is given in separate articles. +The difference between friars and monks is explained in article +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Monasticism</a></span>. Though the usage is not accurate, friars, and also +canons regular, are often spoken of as monks and included among +the monastic orders.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Fr. Cuthbert, <i>The Friars and how they came to England</i>, +pp. 11-32 (1903); also F. A. Gasquet, <i>English Monastic Life</i>, pp. +234-249 (1904), where special information on all the English friars is +<span class="correction" title="amended from coveniently">conveniently</span> brought together.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(E. C. B.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIBOURG<a name="ar35" id="ar35"></a></span> [Ger. <i>Freiburg</i>], one of the Swiss Cantons, in +the western portion of the country, and taking its name from +the town around which the various districts that compose it +gradually gathered. Its area is 646.3 sq. m., of which 568 sq. m. +are classed as “productive” (forests covering 119 sq. m. and +vineyards .8 sq. m.); it boasts of no glaciers or eternal snow. +It is a hilly, not mountainous, region, the highest summits (of +which the Vanil Noir, 7858 ft., is the loftiest) rising in the Gruyère +district at its south-eastern extremity, the best known being +probably the Moléson (6582 ft.) and the Berra (5653 ft.). But +it is the heart of pastoral Switzerland, is famed for its cheese and +cattle, and is the original home of the “<i>Ranz des Vaches</i>,” the +melody by which the herdsmen call their cattle home at milking +time. It is watered by the Sarine or Saane river (with its tributaries +the Singine or Sense and the Glâne) that flows through the +canton from north to south, and traverses its capital town. +The upper course of the Broye (like the Sarine, a tributary of +the Aar) and that of the Veveyse (flowing to the Lake of Geneva) +are in the southern portion of the canton. A small share of the +lakes of Neuchâtel and of Morat belongs to the canton, wherein +the largest sheet of water is the Lac Noir or Schwarzsee. A +sulphur spring rises near the last-named lake, and there are other +such springs in the canton at Montbarry and at Bonn, near the +capital. There are about 150 m. of railways in the canton, the +main line from Lausanne to Bern past Fribourg running through +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>213</span> +it; there are also lines from Fribourg to Morat and to Estavayer, +while from Romont (on the main line) a line runs to Bulle, and +in 1904 was extended to Gessenay or Saanen near the head of the +Sarine or Saane valley. The population of the canton amounted +in 1900 to 127,951 souls, of whom 108,440 were Romanists, +19,305 Protestants, and 167 Jews. The canton is on the linguistic +frontier in Switzerland, the line of division running nearly due +north and south through it, and even right through its capital. +In 1900 there were 78,353 French-speaking inhabitants, and +38,738 German-speaking, the latter being found chiefly in the +north-western (Morat region) and north-eastern (Singine valley) +portions, as well as in the upper valley of the Jogne or Jaun in +the south-east. Besides the capital, Fribourg (<i>q.v.</i>), the only +towns of any importance are Bulle (3330 inhabitants), Châtel +St Denis (2509 inhabitants), Morat (<i>q.v.</i>) or Murten (2263 inhabitants), +Romont (2110 inhabitants), and Estavayer le Lac +or Stäffis am See (1636 inhabitants).</p> + +<p>The canton is pre-eminently a pastoral and agricultural +region, tobacco, cheese and timber being its chief products. +Its industries are comparatively few: straw-plaiting, watch-making +(Semsales), paper-making (Marly), lime-kilns, and, above +all, the huge Cailler chocolate factory at Broc. It forms part +of the diocese of Lausanne and Geneva, the bishop living since +1663 at Fribourg. It is a stronghold of the Romanists, and still +contains many monasteries and nunneries, such as the Carthusian +monks at Valsainte, and the Cistercian nuns at La Fille Dieu +and at Maigrauge. The canton is divided into 7 administrative +districts, and contains 283 communes. It sends 2 members +(named by the cantonal legislature) to the Federal <i>Ständerath</i>, +and 6 members to the Federal <i>Nationalrath</i>. The cantonal +constitution has scarcely been altered since 1857, and is remarkable +as containing none of the modern devices (referendum, +initiative, proportional representation) save the right of “initiative” +enjoyed by 6000 citizens to claim the revision of the +cantonal constitution. The executive council of 7 members is +named for 5 years by the cantonal legislature, which consists +of members (holding office for 5 years) elected in the proportion +of one to every 1200 (or fraction over 800) of the population.</p> +<div class="author">(W. A. B. C.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIBOURG<a name="ar36" id="ar36"></a></span> [Ger. <i>Freiburg</i>], the capital of the Swiss canton +of that name. It is built almost entirely on the left bank of the +Sarine, the oldest bit (the Bourg) of the town being just above +the river bank, flanked by the Neuveville and Auge quarters, +these last (with the Planche quarter on the right bank of the +river) forming the <i>Ville Basse</i>. On the steeply rising ground +to the west of the Bourg is the Quartier des Places, beyond +which, to the west and south-west, is the still newer Pérolles +quarter, where are the railway station and the new University; +all these (with the Bourg) constituting the <i>Ville Haute</i>. In +1900 the population of the town was 15,794, of whom 13,270 +were Romanists and 109 Jews, while 9701 were French-speaking, +and 5595 German-speaking, these last being mainly in the Ville +Basse. Its linguistic history is curious. Founded as a German +town, the French tongue became the official language during the +greater part of the 14th and 15th centuries, but when it joined +the Swiss Confederation in 1481 the German influence came to +the fore, and German was the official language from 1483 to 1798, +becoming thus associated with the rule of the patricians. From +1798 to 1814, and again from 1830 onwards, French prevailed, +as at present, though the new University is a centre of German +influence.</p> + +<p>Fribourg is on the main line of railway from Bern (20 m.) to +Lausanne (41 m.). The principal building in the town is the +collegiate church of St Nicholas, of which the nave dates from the +13th-14th centuries, while the choir was rebuilt in the 17th +century. It is a fine building, remarkable in itself, as well as +for its lofty, late 15th century, bell-tower (249 ft. high), with a +fine peal of bells; its famous organ was built between 1824 and +1834 by Aloys Mooser (a native of the town), has 7800 pipes, +and is played daily in summer for the edification of tourists. +The numerous monasteries in and around the town, its old-fashioned +aspect, its steep and narrow streets, give it a most +striking appearance. One of the most conspicuous buildings in +the town is the college of St Michael, while in front of the 16th +century town hall is an ancient lime tree stated (but this is very +doubtful) to have been planted on the day of the victory of Morat +(June 22, 1476). In the Lycée is the Cantonal Museum of Fine +Arts, wherein, besides many interesting objects, is the collection +of paintings and statuary bequeathed to the town in 1879 by +Duchess Adela Colonna (a member of the d’Affry family of +Fribourg), by whom many were executed under the name of +“Marcello.” The deep ravine of the Sarine is crossed by a very +fine suspension bridge, constructed 1832-1834 by M. Chaley, +of Lyons, which is 167 ft. above the Sarine, has a span of 808 ft., +and consists of 6 huge cables composed of 3294 strands. A +loftier suspension bridge is thrown over the Gotteron stream +just before it joins the Sarine: it is 590 ft. long and 246 ft. in +height, and was built in 1840. About 3 m. north of the town +is the great railway viaduct or girder bridge of Grandfey, constructed +in 1862 (1092 ft. in length, 249 ft. high) at a cost of +2¾ million francs. Immediately above the town a vast dam +(591 ft. long) was constructed across the Sarine by the engineer +Ritter in 1870-1872, the fall thus obtained yielding a water-power +of 2600 to 4000 horse-power, and forming a sheet of water +known as the Lac de Pérolles. A motive force of 600 horse-power, +secured by turbines in the stream, is conveyed to the +plateau of Pérolles by “telodynamic” cables of 2510 ft. in +length, for whose passage a tunnel has been pierced in the rock. +On the Pérolles plateau is the International Catholic University +founded in 1889.</p> + +<p><i>History.</i>—In 1178 the foundation of the town (meant to hold +in check the turbulent nobles of the neighbourhood) was completed +by Berchthold IV., duke of Zähringen, whose father Conrad +had founded Freiburg in Breisgau in 1120, and whose son, +Berchthold V., was to found Bern in 1191. The spot was chosen +for purposes of military defence, and was situated in the <i>Uechtland</i> +or waste land between Alamannian and Burgundian +territory. He granted it many privileges, modelled on the +charters of Cologne and of Freiburg in Breisgau, though the oldest +existing charter of the town dates from 1249. On the extinction +of the male line of the Zähringen dynasty, in 1218, their lands +passed to Anna, the sister of the last duke and wife of Count +Ulrich of Kyburg. That house kept Fribourg till it too became +extinct, in 1264, in the male line. Anna, the heiress, married +about 1273 Eberhard, count of Habsburg-Laufenburg, who sold +Fribourg in 1277 for 3000 marks to his cousin Rudolf, the head +of the house of Habsburg as well as emperor. The town had to +fight many a hard battle for its existence against Bern and the +count of Savoy, especially between 1448 and 1452. Abandoned +by the Habsburgs, and desirous of escaping from the increasing +power of Bern, Fribourg in 1452 finally submitted to the count +of Savoy, to whom it had become indebted for vast sums of money. +Yet, despite all its difficulties, it was in the first half of the 15th +century that Fribourg exported much leather and cloth to France, +Italy and Venice, as many as 10,000 to 20,000 bales of cloth being +stamped with the seal of the town. When Yolande, dowager +duchess of Savoy, entered into an alliance with Charles the Bold, +duke of Burgundy, Fribourg joined Bern, and helped to gain the +victories of Grandson and of Morat (1476).</p> + +<p>In 1477 the town was finally freed from the rule of Savoy, +while in 1481 (with Soleure) it became a member of the Swiss +Confederation, largely, it is said, through the influence of the +holy man, Bruder Klaus (Niklaus von der Flüe). In 1475 +the town had taken Illens and Arconciel from Savoy, and in +1536 won from Vaud much territory, including Romont, Rue, +Châtel St Denis, Estavayer, St Aubin (by these two conquests its +dominion reached the Lake of Neuchâtel), as well as Vuissens and +Surpierre, which still form outlying portions (physically within +the canton of Vaud) of its territory, while in 1537 it took Bulle +from the bishop of Lausanne. In 1502-1504 the lordship of +Bellegarde or Jaun was bought, while in 1555 it acquired (jointly +with Bern) the lands of the last count of the Gruyère, and thus +obtained the rich district of that name. From 1475 it ruled +(with Bern) the bailiwicks of Morat, Grandson, Orbe and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>214</span> +Echallens, just taken from Savoy, but in 1798 Morat was incorporated +with (finally annexed in 1814) the canton of Fribourg, +the other bailiwicks being then given to the canton of Léman +(later of Vaud). In the 16th century the original democratic +government gradually gave place to the oligarchy of the patrician +families. Though this government caused much discontent +it continued till it was overthrown on the French occupation of +1798.</p> + +<p>From 1803 (Act of Mediation) to 1814, Fribourg was one of +the six cantons of the Swiss Confederation. But, on the fall of +the new régime, in 1814, the old patrician rule was partly restored, +as 108 of the 144 seats in the cantonal legislature were assigned to +members of the patrician families. In 1831 the Radicals gained +the power and secured the adoption of a more liberal constitution. +In 1846 Fribourg (where the Conservatives had regained power +in 1837) joined the <i>Sonderbund</i> and, in 1847, saw the Federal +troops before its walls, and had to surrender to them. The +Radicals now came back to power, and again revised the cantonal +constitution in a liberal sense. The Catholic and Conservative +party made several attempts to recover their supremacy, but +their chiefs were driven into exile. In 1856 the Conservatives +regained the upper hand at the general cantonal election, secured +the adoption in 1857 of a new cantonal constitution, and have +ever since maintained their rule, which some dub “clerical,” +while others describe it as “anti-radical.”</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Authorities.</span>—<i>Archives de la Société d’histoire du Canton de +F.</i>, from 1850; F. Buomberger, <i>Bevölkerungs- u. Vermögensstatistik +in d. Stadt u. Landschaft F. um die Mitte d. 15ten Jahrhunderts</i> (Bern, +1900); A. Daguet, <i>Histoire de la ville et de la seigneurie de F.</i>, to +1481 (Fribourg, 1889); A. Dellion, <i>Dictionnaire historique et +statistique des paroisses catholiques du C. de F.</i> (12 vols., Fribourg, +1884-1903); <i>Freiburger Geschichtsblätter</i>, from 1894; <i>Fribourg +artistique</i> (fine plates), from 1890; E. Heyck, <i>Geschichte der Herzoge +von Zähringen</i> (Freiburg i. Br., 1891); F. Kuenlin, <i>Der K. Freiburg</i> +(St Gall and Bern, 1834); <i>Mémorial de F.</i> (6 vols., 1854-1859); +<i>Recueil diplomatique du Cant. de F.</i> (original documents) (8 vols., +Fribourg, 1839-1877); F. E. Welti, <i>Beiträge zur Geschichte des +älteren Stadtrechtes von Freiburg im Uechtland</i> (Bern, 1908); J. Zemp, +<i>L’Art de la ville de Fribourg au moyen âge</i> (Fribourg, 1905); J. +Zimmerli, <i>Die deutsch-französische Sprachgrenze in d. Schweiz</i> +(Basel and Geneva, 1895), vol. ii., pp. 72 seq.; <i>Les Alpes fribourgeoises</i> +(Lausanne, 1908).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(W. A. B. C.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRICTION<a name="ar37" id="ar37"></a></span> (from Lat. <i>fricare</i>, to rub), in physical and mechanical +science, the term given to the resistance which every material +surface presents to the sliding of any other such surface upon it. +This resistance is due to the roughness of the surfaces; the +minute projections upon each enter more or less into the minute +depressions on the other, and when motion occurs these roughnesses +must either be worn off, or continually lifted out of the +hollows into which they have fallen, or both, the resistance to +motion being in either case quite perceptible and measurable.</p> + +<p>Friction is preferably spoken of as “resistance” rather than +“force,” for a reason exactly the same as that which induces +us to treat stress rather as molecular resistance (to change of +form) than as force, and which may be stated thus: although +friction can be utilized as a moving force at will, and is continually +so used, yet it cannot be a primary moving force; it can transmit +or modify motion already existing, but cannot in the first instance +cause it. For this some external force, not friction, is required. +The analogy with stress appears complete; the motion of the +“driving link” of a machine is communicated to all the other +parts, modified or unchanged as the case may be, by the stresses +in those parts; but the actual setting in motion of the driving +link itself cannot come about by stress, but must have for its +production force obtained directly from the expenditure of some +form of energy. It is important, however, that the use of the +term “resistance” should not be allowed to mislead. Friction +resists the motion of one surface upon another, but it may and +frequently does confer the motion of the one upon the other, and +in this way causes, instead of resists, the motion of the latter. +This may be made more clear, perhaps, by an illustration. +Suppose we have a leather strap A passing over a fixed cylindrical +drum B, and let a pulling force or effort be applied to the strap. +The force applied to A can act on B only at the surfaces of contact +between them. There it becomes an effort tending either to move +A upon B, or to move the body B itself, according to the frictional +conditions. In the absence of friction it would simply cause A +to slide on B, so that we may call it an effort tending to make +A slide on B. The friction is the resistance offered by the surface +of B to any such motion. But the value of this resistance is not +in any way a function of the effort itself,—it depends chiefly +upon the pressure normal to the surfaces and the nature of the +surfaces. It may therefore be either less or greater than the +effort. If less, A slides over B, the rate of motion being determined +by the excess of the effort over the resistance (friction). +But if the latter be greater no sliding can occur, <i>i.e.</i> A cannot, +under the action of the supposed force, move upon B. The effort +between the surfaces exists, however, exactly as before,—and +it must now tend to cause the motion of B. But the body B is +fixed,—or, in other words, we suppose its resistance to motion +greater than any effort which can tend to move it,—hence no +motion takes place. It must be specially noticed, however, +that it is not the friction between A and B that has prevented +motion, this only prevented A moving on B,—it is the force +which keeps B stationary, whatever that may be, which has +finally prevented any motion taking place. This can be easily +seen. Suppose B not to be fixed, but to be capable of moving +against some third body C (which might, <i>e.g.</i>, contain cylindrical +bearings, if B were a drum with its shaft), itself fixed,—and +further, suppose the frictional resistance between B and C to +be the only resistance to B’s motion. Then if this be less than +the effort of A upon B, as it of course may be, this effort will cause +the motion of B. Thus friction causes motion, for had there +been no frictional resistance between the surfaces of A and of B, +the latter body would have remained stationary, and A only +would have moved. In the case supposed, therefore, the friction +between A and B is a necessary condition of B receiving any +motion from the external force applied to A.</p> + +<p>Without entering here on the mathematical treatment of +the subject of friction, some general conclusions may be pointed +out which have been arrived at as the results of experiment. +The “laws” first enunciated by C. A. Coulomb (1781), and afterwards +confirmed by A. J. Morin (1830-1834), have been found to +hold good within very wide limits. These are: (1) that the friction +is proportional to the normal pressure between the surfaces +of contact, and therefore independent of the area of those surfaces, +and (2) that it is independent of the velocity with which the +surfaces slide one on the other. For many practical purposes +these statements are sufficiently accurate, and they do in fact +sensibly represent the results of experiment for the pressures +and at the velocities most commonly occurring. Assuming the +correctness of these, friction is generally measured in terms +simply of the total pressure between the surfaces, by multiplying +it by a “coefficient of friction” depending on the material of +the surfaces and their state as to smoothness and lubrication. +But beyond certain limits the “laws” stated are certainly +incorrect, and are to be regarded as mere practical rules, of +extensive application certainly, but without any pretension to +be looked at as really general laws. Both at very high and very +low pressures the coefficient of friction is affected by the intensity +of pressure, and, just as with velocity, it can only be regarded +as independent of the intensity and proportional simply to the +total load within more or less definite limits.</p> + +<p>Coulomb pointed out long ago that the resistance of a body +to be set in motion was in many cases much greater than the +resistance which it offered to continued motion; and since his +time writers have always distinguished the “friction of rest,” +or static friction, from the “friction of motion,” or kinetic +friction. He showed also that the value of the former depended +often both upon the intensity of the pressure and upon the +length of time during which contact had lasted, both of which +facts quite agree with what we should expect from our knowledge +of the physical nature, already mentioned, of the causes +of friction. It seems not unreasonable to expect that the +influence of time upon friction should show itself in a comparison +of very slow with very rapid motion, as well as in a comparison +of starting (<i>i.e.</i> motion after a long time of rest) with continued +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>215</span> +motion. That the friction at the higher velocities occurring in +engineering practice is much less than at common velocities +has been shown by several modern experiments, such as those +of Sir Douglas Galton (see <i>Report Brit. Assoc.</i>, 1878, and <i>Proc. +Inst. Mech. Eng.</i>, 1878, 1879) on the friction between brake-blocks +and wheels, and between wheels and rails. But no increase in +the coefficient of friction had been detected at slow speeds, +until the experiments of Prof. Fleeming Jenkin (<i>Phil. Trans.</i>, +1877, pt. 2) showed conclusively that at extremely low velocities +(the lowest measured was about .0002 ft. per second) there is a +sensible increase of frictional resistance in many cases, most +notably in those in which there is the most marked difference +between the friction of rest and that of motion. These experiments +distinctly point to the conclusion, although without +absolutely proving it, that in such cases the coefficient of kinetic +friction gradually increases as the velocity becomes extremely +small, and passes without discontinuity into that of static +friction.</p> +<div class="author">(A. B. W. K.; W. E. D.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIDAY<a name="ar38" id="ar38"></a></span> (A.S. <i>frige-dæg</i>, fr. <i>frige</i>, gen. of <i>frigu</i>, love, or the +goddess of love—the Norse Frigg,—the <i>dæg</i>, day; cf. Icelandic +<i>frjádagr</i>, O.H. Ger. <i>friatag</i>, <i>frigatag</i>, mod. Ger. <i>Freitag</i>), +the sixth day of the week, corresponding to the Roman <i>Dies +Veneris</i>, the French <i>Vendredi</i> and Italian <i>Venerdi</i>. The ill-luck +associated with the day undoubtedly arose from its connexion +with the Crucifixion; for the ancient Scandinavian peoples +regarded it as the luckiest day of the week. By the Western +and Eastern Churches the Fridays throughout the year, except +when Christmas falls on that day, have ever been observed as +days of fast in memory of the Passion. The special day on +which the Passion of Christ is annually commemorated is +known as Good Friday (<i>q.v.</i>). According to Mahommedan +tradition, Friday, which is the Moslem Sabbath, was the day on +which Adam was created, entered Paradise and was expelled, +and it was the day of his repentance, the day of his death, and +will be the Day of Resurrection.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDBERG,<a name="ar39" id="ar39"></a></span> the name of two towns in Germany.</p> + +<p>1. A small town in Upper Bavaria, with an old castle, known +mainly as the scene of Moreau’s victory of the 24th of August +1796 over the Austrians.</p> + +<p>2. <span class="sc">Friedberg in der Wetterau</span>, in the grand duchy of +Hesse-Darmstadt, on an eminence above the Usa, 14 m. N. of +Frankfort-on-Main, on the railway to Cassel and at the junction +of a line to Hanau. Pop. (1905) 7702. It is a picturesque +town, still surrounded by old walls and towers, and contains many +medieval buildings, of which the beautiful Gothic town church +(Evangelical) and the old castle are especially noteworthy. +The grand-ducal palace has a beautiful garden. The schools +include technical and agricultural academies and a teachers’ +seminary. It has manufactures of sugar, gloves and leather, +and breweries. Friedberg is of Roman origin, but is first mentioned +as a town in the 11th century. In 1211 it became a free +imperial city, but in 1349 was pledged to the counts of Schwarzburg, +and subsequently often changed hands, eventually in +1802 passing to Hesse-Darmstadt.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Dieffenbach, <i>Geschichte der Stadt und Burg Friedberg</i> (Darms., +1857).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDEL, CHARLES<a name="ar40" id="ar40"></a></span> (1832-1899), French chemist and mineralogist, +was born at Strassburg on the 12th of March 1832. +After graduating at Strassburg University he spent a year in +the counting-house of his father, a banker and merchant, and +then in 1851 went to live in Paris with his maternal grandfather, +Georges Louis Duvernoy (1777-1855), professor of natural +history and, from 1850, of comparative anatomy, at the Collège +de France. In 1854 he entered C. A. Wurtz’s laboratory, and +in 1856, at the instance of H. H. de Sénarmont (1808-1862), was +appointed conservator of the mineralogical collections at the +École des Mines. In 1871 he began to lecture in place of A. L. +O. L. Des Cloizeaux (1817-1897) at the École Normale, and in +1876 he became professor of mineralogy at the Sorbonne, but on +the death of Wurtz in 1884 he exchanged that position for +the chair of organic chemistry. He died at Montauban on the +20th of April 1899. Friedel achieved distinction both in mineralogy +and organic chemistry. In the former he was one of the +leading workers, in collaboration from 1879 to 1887 with Émile +Edmond Sarasin (1843-1890), at the formation of minerals by +artificial means, particularly in the wet way with the aid of heat +and pressure, and he succeeded in reproducing a large number +of the natural compounds. In 1893, as the result of an attempt +to make diamond by the action of sulphur on highly carburetted +cast iron at 450°-500° C. he obtained a black powder too small in +quantity to be analysed but hard enough to scratch corundum. +He also devoted much attention to the pyroelectric phenomena +of crystals, which served as the theme of one of the two memoirs +he presented for the degree of D.Sc. in 1869, and to the determination +of crystallographic constants. In organic chemistry, +his study of the ketones and aldehydes, begun in 1857, provided +him with the subject of his other doctoral thesis. In 1862 he +prepared secondary propyl alcohol, and in 1863, with James +Mason Crafts (b. 1839), for many years a professor at the Massachusetts +Institute of Technology, Boston, he obtained various +organometallic compounds of silicon. A few years later further +work, with Albert Ladenburg, on the same element yielded +silicochloroform and led to a demonstration of the close analogy +existing between the behaviour in combination of silicon and +carbon. In 1871, with R. D. da Silva (b. 1837) he synthesized +glycerin, starting from propylene. In 1877, with Crafts, he +made the first publication of the fruitful and widely used method +for synthesizing benzene homologues now generally known as +the “Friedel and Crafts reaction.” It was based on an accidental +observation of the action of metallic aluminium on amyl chloride, +and consists in bringing together a hydrocarbon and an organic +chloride in presence of aluminium chloride, when the residues +of the two compounds unite to form a more complex body. +Friedel was associated with Wurtz in editing the latter’s <i>Dictionnaire +de chimie</i>, and undertook the supervision of the supplements +issued after 1884. He was the chief founder of the <i>Revue générale +de chimie</i> in 1899. His publications include a <i>Notice sur la vie +et les travaux de Wurtz</i> (1885), <i>Cours de chimie organique</i> (1887) +and <i>Cours de minéralogie</i> (1893). He acted as president of the +International Congress held at Geneva in 1892 for revising the +nomenclature of the fatty acid series.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See a memorial lecture by J. M. Crafts, printed in the <i>Journal of +the London Chemical Society</i> for 1900.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDLAND,<a name="ar41" id="ar41"></a></span> a town of Bohemia, Austria, 103 m. N.E. of +Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 6229. Besides the old town, which +is still surrounded by walls, it contains three suburbs. The +principal industry is the manufacture of woollen and linen cloth. +Friedland is chiefly remarkable for its old castle, which occupies +an imposing situation on a small hill commanding the town. +A round watch-tower is said to have been built on its site as +early as 1014; and the present castle dates from the 13th century. +It was several times besieged in the Thirty Years’ and Seven +Years’ Wars. In 1622 it was purchased by Wallenstein, who +took from it his title of duke of Friedland. After his death it +was given to Count Mathias Gallas by Ferdinand II., and since +1757 it has belonged to the Count Clam Gallas. It was magnificently +restored in 1868-1869.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDLAND,<a name="ar42" id="ar42"></a></span> the name of seven towns in Germany. The +most important now is that in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, +on the Mühlenteich, 35 m. N.E. of Strelitz by the +railway to Neu-Brandenburg. Pop. 7000. It possesses a fine +Gothic church and a gymnasium, and has manufactures of +woollen and linen cloth, leather and tobacco. Friedland was +founded in 1244 by the margraves John and Otto III. of +Brandenburg.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDLAND,<a name="ar43" id="ar43"></a></span> a town of Prussia, on the Alle, 27 m. S.E. of +Königsberg (pop. 3000), famous as the scene of the battle +fought between the French under Napoleon and the Russians +commanded by General Bennigsen, on the 14th of June 1807 +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Napoleonic Campaigns</a></span>). The Russians had on the 13th +driven the French cavalry outposts from Friedland to the westward, +and Bennigsen’s main body began to occupy the town in +the night. The army of Napoleon was set in motion for Friedland, +but it was still dispersed on its various march routes, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>216</span> +first stage of the engagement was thus, as usual, a pure +“encounter-battle.” The corps of Marshal Lannes as “general +advanced guard” was first engaged, in the Sortlack Wood and +in front of Posthenen (2.30-3 <span class="scs">A.M.</span> on the 14th). Both sides now +used their cavalry freely to cover the formation of lines of battle, +and a race between the rival squadrons for the possession of +Heinrichsdorf resulted in favour of the French under Grouchy. +Lannes in the meantime was fighting hard to hold Bennigsen, +for Napoleon feared that the Russians meant to evade him again. +Actually, by 6 <span class="scs">A.M.</span> Bennigsen had nearly 50,000 men across the +river and forming up west of Friedland. His infantry, in two +lines, with artillery, extended between the Heinrichsdorf-Friedland +road and the upper bends of the river. Beyond the right of the +infantry, cavalry and Cossacks extended the line to the wood +N.E. of Heinrichsdorf, and small bodies of Cossacks penetrated +even to Schwonau. The left wing also had some cavalry and, +beyond the Alle, batteries were brought into action to cover it. +A heavy and indecisive fire-fight raged in the Sortlack Wood +between the Russian skirmishers and some of Lannes’s troops. +The head of Mortier’s (French and Polish) corps appeared at +Heinrichsdorf and the Cossacks were driven out of Schwonau. +Lannes held his own, and by noon, when Napoleon arrived, +40,000 French troops were on the scene of action. His orders +were brief: Ney’s corps was to take the line between Posthenen +and the Sortlack Wood, Lannes closing on his left, to form the +centre, Mortier at Heinrichsdorf the left wing. Victor and the +Guard were placed in reserve behind Posthenen. Cavalry +masses were collected at Heinrichsdorf. The main attack was +to be delivered against the Russian left, which Napoleon saw at +once to be cramped in the narrow tongue of land between the +river and the Posthenen mill-stream. Three cavalry divisions +were added to the general reserve. The course of the previous +operations had been such that both armies had still large detachments +out towards Königsberg. The afternoon was spent by +the emperor in forming up the newly arrived masses, the deployment +being covered by an artillery bombardment. At 5 o’clock +all was ready, and Ney, preceded by a heavy artillery fire, +rapidly carried the Sortlack Wood. The attack was pushed on +toward the Alle. One of Ney’s divisions (Marchand) drove part +of the Russian left into the river at Sortlack. A furious charge +of cavalry against Marchand’s left was repulsed by the dragoon +division of Latour-Maubourg. Soon the Russians were huddled +together in the bends of the Alle, an easy target for the guns of +Ney and of the reserve. Ney’s attack indeed came eventually +to a standstill; Bennigsen’s reserve cavalry charged with great +effect and drove him back in disorder. As at Eylau, the approach +of night seemed to preclude a decisive success, but in June and +on firm ground the old mobility of the French reasserted +its value. The infantry division of Dupont advanced rapidly +from Posthenen, the cavalry divisions drove back the Russian +squadrons into the now congested masses of foot on the river +bank, and finally the artillery general Sénarmont advanced a +mass of guns to case-shot range. It was the first example of +the terrible artillery preparations of modern warfare, and the +Russian defence collapsed in a few minutes. Ney’s exhausted +infantry were able to pursue the broken regiments of Bennigsen’s +left into the streets of Friedland. Lannes and Mortier had all +this time held the Russian centre and right on its ground, and +their artillery had inflicted severe losses. When Friedland itself +was seen to be on fire, the two marshals launched their infantry +attack. Fresh French troops approached the battlefield. +Dupont distinguished himself for the second time by fording +the mill-stream and assailing the left flank of the Russian centre. +This offered a stubborn resistance, but the French steadily +forced the line backwards, and the battle was soon over. The +losses incurred by the Russians in retreating over the river at +Friedland were very heavy, many soldiers being drowned. +Farther north the still unbroken troops of the right wing drew +off by the Allenburg road; the French cavalry of the left wing, +though ordered to pursue, remaining, for some reason, inactive. +The losses of the victors were reckoned at 12,100 out of 86,000, +or 14%, those of the Russians at 10,000 out of 46,000, or 21% +(Berndt, <i>Zahl im Kriege</i>).</p> + +<div class="center pt2"><img style="width:516px; height:529px; vertical-align: middle;" src="images/img216.jpg" alt="" /></div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDMANN, MEIR<a name="ar44" id="ar44"></a></span> (1831-1908), Hungarian Jewish scholar. +His editions of the Midrash are the standard texts. His chief +editions were the <i>Sifre</i> (1864), the <i>Mekhilta</i> (1870), <i>Pesiqla +Rabbathi</i> (1880). At the time of his death he was editing the +<i>Sifra</i>. Friedmann, while inspired with regard for tradition, dealt +with the Rabbinic texts on modern scientific methods, and rendered +conspicuous service to the critical investigation of the +Midrash and to the history of early homilies.</p> +<div class="author">(I. A.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDRICH, JOHANN<a name="ar45" id="ar45"></a></span> (1836-  ), German theologian, was +born at Poxdorf in Upper Franconia on the 5th of May 1836, +and was educated at Bamberg and at Munich, where in 1865 he +was appointed professor extraordinary of theology. In 1869 he +went to the Vatican Council as secretary to Cardinal Hohenlohe, +and took an active part in opposing the dogma of papal infallibility, +notably by supplying the opposition bishops with historical +and theological material. He left Rome before the council +closed. “No German ecclesiastic of his age appears to have won +for himself so unusual a repute as a theologian and to have held +so important a position, as the trusted counsellor of the leading +German cardinal at the Vatican Council. The path was fairly +open before him to the highest advancement in the Church of +Rome, yet he deliberately sacrificed all such hopes and placed +himself in the van of a hard and doubtful struggle” (<i>The Guardian</i>, +1872, p. 1004). Sentence of excommunication was passed on +Friedrich in April 1871, but he refused to acknowledge it and +was upheld by the Bavarian government. He continued to +perform ecclesiastical functions and maintained his academic +position, becoming ordinary professor in 1872. In 1882 he was +transferred to the philosophical faculty as professor of history. +By this time he had to some extent withdrawn from the advanced +position which he at first occupied in organizing the Old +Catholic Church, for he was not in agreement with its abolition +of enforced celibacy.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Friedrich was a prolific writer; among his chief works are: +<i>Johann Wessel</i> (1862); <i>Die Lehre des Johann Hus</i> (1862); <i>Kirchengeschichte +Deutschlands</i> (1867-1869); <i>Tagebuch während des Vatikan. +Concils geführt</i> (1871); <i>Zur Verteidigung meines Tagebuchs</i> (1872); +<i>Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte des 18ten Jahrh.</i> (1876); <i>Geschichte des +Vatikan. Konzils</i> (1877-1886); <i>Beiträge zur Gesch. des Jesuitenordens</i> +(1881); <i>Das Papsttum</i> (1892); <i>I. v. Döllinger</i> (1899-1901).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDRICHRODA,<a name="ar46" id="ar46"></a></span> a summer resort in the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, +Germany, at the north foot of the Thuringian +Forest, 13 m. by rail S.W. from Gotha. Pop. 4500. It is surrounded +by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous handsome +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>217</span> +villa residences, a <i>Kurhaus</i>, sanatorium, &c. In the immediate +neighbourhood is the beautiful ducal hunting seat of Reinhardsbrunn, +built out of the ruins of the famous Benedictine monastery +founded in 1085.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDRICHSDORF,<a name="ar47" id="ar47"></a></span> a town of Germany, in the Prussian +province of Hesse-Nassau, on the southern slope of the Taunus +range, 3 m. N.E. from Homburg. Pop. 1300. It has a French +Reformed church, a modern school, dyeworks, weaving mills, +tanneries and tobacco manufactures. Friedrichsdorf was founded +in 1687 by Huguenot refugees and the inhabitants still speak +French. There is a monument to Philipp Reis (1834-1874), +who in 1860 first constructed the telephone while a science +master at the school.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDRICHSHAFEN,<a name="ar48" id="ar48"></a></span> a town of Germany, in the kingdom +of Württemberg, on the east shore of the Lake of Constance, at +the junction of railways to Bretten and Lindau. Pop. 4600. +It consists of the former imperial town of Buchhorn and the +monastery and village of Hofen. The principal building is the +palace, formerly the residence of the provosts of Hofen, and +now the summer residence of the royal family. To the palace +is attached the Evangelical parish church. The town has a +hydropathic establishment and is a favourite tourist resort. +Here are also the natural history and antiquarian collections of +the Lake Constance Association. Buchhorn is mentioned (as +Buachihorn or Puchihorn) in documents of 837 and was the +seat of a powerful countship. The line of counts died out in +1089, and the place fell first to the Welfs and in 1191 to the +Hohenstaufen. In 1275 it was made a free imperial city by +King Rudolph I. In 1802 it lost this status and was assigned +to Bavaria, and in 1810 to Württemberg. The monastery of +Hofen was founded in 1050 as a convent of Benedictine nuns, +but was changed in 1420 into a provostship of monks. It was +suppressed in 1802 and in 1805 came to Württemberg. King +Frederick I., who caused the harbour to be made, amalgamated +Buchhorn and Hofen under the new name of Friedrichshafen.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEDRICHSRUH,<a name="ar49" id="ar49"></a></span> a village in the Prussian province of +Schleswig-Holstein, 15 m. S.E. of Hamburg, with a station on +the main line of railway to Berlin. It gives its name to the +famous country seat of the Bismarck family. The house is a +plain unpretentious structure, but the park and estate, forming +a portion of the famous Sachsenwald, are attractive. Close by, +on a knoll, the Schneckenberg, stands the mausoleum in +which the remains of Prince Otto von Bismarck were entombed +on the 16th of March 1899.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIENDLY<a name="ar50" id="ar50"></a></span><a name="fa1c" id="fa1c" href="#ft1c"><span class="sp">1</span></a> <span class="bold">SOCIETIES.</span> These organizations, according to +the comprehensive definition of the Friendly Societies Act 1896, +which regulates such societies in Great Britain and Ireland, +are “societies for the purpose of providing by voluntary subscriptions +of the members thereof, with or without the aid of donations, +for the relief or maintenance of the members, their husbands, +wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters, nephews +or nieces, or wards being orphans, during sickness or other +infirmity, whether bodily or mental, in old age, or in widowhood, +or for the relief or maintenance of the orphan children of members +during minority; for insuring money to be paid on the birth of +a member’s child, or on the death of a member, or for the funeral +expenses of the husband, wife, or child of a member, or of the +widow of a deceased member, or, as respects persons of the +Jewish persuasion, for the payment of a sum of money during +the period of confined mourning; for the relief or maintenance +of the members when on travel in search of employment or when +in distressed circumstances, or in case of shipwreck, or loss +or damage of or to boats or nets; for the endowment of members +or nominees of members at any age; for the insurance against +fire to any amount not exceeding £15 of the tools or implements +of the trade or calling of the members”—and are limited in +their contracts for assurance of annuities to £52 (previous to the +Friendly Societies Act 1908 the sum was £50), and for insurance +of a gross sum to £300 (previous to the act of 1908 the sum was +£200). They may be described in a more popular and condensed +form of words as the mutual insurance societies of the poorer +classes, by which they seek to aid each other in the emergencies +arising from sickness and death and other causes of distress. A +phrase in the first act for the encouragement and relief of friendly +societies, passed in 1793, designating them “societies of good +fellowship,” indicates another useful phase of their operations.</p> + +<p>The origin of the friendly society is, probably in all countries, +the burial club. It has been the policy of every religion, if indeed +it is not a common instinct of humanity, to surround the disposal +of a dead body with circumstances of pomp and expenditure, +often beyond the means of the surviving relatives. The appeal +for help to friends and neighbours which necessarily follows is +soon organized into a system of mutual aid, that falls in naturally +with the religious ceremonies by which honour is done to the +dead. Thus in China there are burial societies, termed “long-life +loan companies,” in almost all the towns and villages. Among +the Greeks the <span class="grk" title="eranoi">ἔρανοι</span> combined the religious with the provident +element (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Charity and Charities</a></span>). From the Greeks the +Romans derived their fraternities of a similar kind. The Teutons +in like manner had their gilds. Whether the English friendly +society owes its origin in the higher degree to the Roman or the +Teutonic influence can hardly be determined. The utility of +providing by combination for the ritual expenditure upon burial +having been ascertained, the next step—to render mutual assistance +in circumstances of distress generally—was an easy one, +and we find it taken by the Greek <span class="grk" title="eranoi">ἔρανοι</span> and by the English +gilds. Another modification—that the societies should consist not +so much of neighbours as of persons having the same occupation—soon +arises; and this is the germ of our trade unions and +our city companies in their original constitution. The interest, +however, that these inquiries possess is mainly antiquarian. +The legal definition of a friendly society quoted above points to +an organization more complex than those of the ancient fraternities +and gilds, and proceeding upon different principles. It +may be that the one has grown out of the other. The common +element of a provision for a contingent event by a joint contribution +is in both; but the friendly society alone has attempted +to define with precision what is the risk against which it intends +to provide, and what should be the contributions of the members +to meet that risk.</p> + +<p><i>United Kingdom.</i>—It would be curious to endeavour to trace +how, after the suppression of the religious gilds in the 16th +century, and the substitution of an organized system of relief +by the poor law of Elizabeth for the more voluntary and casual +means of relief that previously existed, the modern system of +friendly societies grew up. The modern friendly society, particularly +in rural districts, clings with fondness to its annual feast +and procession to church, its procession of all the brethren on +the occasion of the funeral of one of them, and other incidents +which are almost obviously survivals of the customs of medieval +gilds. The last recorded gild was in existence in 1628, and there +are records of friendly societies as early as 1634 and 1639. The +connecting links, however, cannot be traced. With the exception +of a society in the port of Borrowstounness on the Firth of Forth, +no existing friendly society is known to be able to trace back its +history beyond a date late in the 17th century, and no records +remain of any that might have existed in the latter half of the +16th century or the greater part of the 17th. One founded in +1666 was extant in 1850, but it has since ceased to exist. This +is not so surprising as it might appear. Documents which exist +in manuscript only are much less likely to have been preserved +since the invention of printing than they were before; and such +would be the simple rules and records of any society that might +have existed during this interval—if, indeed, many of them +kept records at all. On the whole, it seems probable therefore +that the friendly society is a lineal descendant of the ancient +gild—the idea never having wholly died out, but having been +kept up from generation to generation in a succession of small +and scattered societies.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id="page218"></a>218</span></p> + +<p>At the same time, it seems probable that the friendly society +of the present day owes its revival to a great extent to the Protestant +refugees of Spitalfields, one of whose societies was founded +in 1703, and has continued among descendants of the same +families, whose names proclaim their Norman origin. This +society has distinguished itself by the intelligence with which it +has adapted its machinery to the successive modifications of the +law, and it completely reconstructed its rules under the provisions +of the Friendly Societies Acts 1875 and 1876.</p> + +<p>Another is the society of Lintot, founded in London in 1708, +in which the office of secretary was for more than half a century +filled by persons of the name of Levesque, one of whom published +a translation of its original rules. No one was to be received into +the society who was not a member, or the descendant of a member, +of the church of Lintot, of recognized probity, a good Protestant, +and well-intentioned towards the queen [Anne] and +faithful to the government of the country. No one was to be +admitted below the age of eighteen, or who had not been received +at holy communion and become member of a church. A +member should not have a claim to relief during his first year’s +membership, but if he fell sick within the year a collection should +be made for him among the members. The foreign names still +borne by a large proportion of the members show that the connexion +with descendants of the refugees is maintained.</p> + +<p>The example of providence given by these societies was so +largely followed that Rose’s Act in 1793 recognized the existence +of numerous societies, and provided encouragement for them in +various ways, as well as relief from taxation to an extent which +in those days must have been of great pecuniary value, and exemption +from removal under the poor law. The benefits offered +by this statute were readily accepted by the societies, and the +vast number of societies which speedily became enrolled shows +that Rose’s Act met with a real public want. In the county of +Middlesex alone nearly a thousand societies were enrolled within +a very few years after the passing of the act, and the number in +some other counties was almost as great. The societies then +formed were nearly all of a like kind—small clubs, in which the +feature of good fellowship was in the ascendant, and that of +provident assurance for sickness and death merely accessory. +This is indicated by one provision which occurs in many of the +early enrolled rules, viz. that the number of members shall be +limited to 61, 81 or 101, as the case may be. The odd 1 which +occurs in these numbers probably stands for the president or +secretary, or is a contrivance to ensure a clear majority. Several +of these old societies are still in existence, and can point to a +prosperous career based rather upon good luck than upon +scientific calculation. Founded among small tradesmen or +persons in the way to thrive, the claims for sickness were only +made in cases where the sickness was accompanied by distress, +and even the funeral allowance was not always demanded.</p> + +<p>The societies generally not being established upon any scientific +principle, those which met with this prosperity were the exception +to the rule; and accordingly the cry that friendly societies +were failing in all quarters was as great in 1819 as in 1869. A +writer of that time speaks of the instability of friendly societies +as “universal”; and the general conviction that this was so +resulted in the passing of the act of 1819. It recites that “the +habitual reliance of poor persons upon parochial relief, rather +than upon their own industry, tends to the moral deterioration +of the people and to the accumulation of heavy burthens upon +parishes; and it is desirable, with a view as well to the reduction +of the assessment made for the relief of the poor as to the improvement +of the habits of the people, that encouragement should be +afforded to persons desirous of making provision for themselves +or their families out of the fruits of their own industry. By the +contributions of the savings of many persons to one common +fund the most effectual provision may be made for the casualties +affecting all the contributors; and it is therefore desirable to +afford further facilities and additional security to persons who +may be willing to unite in appropriating small sums from time +to time to a common fund for the purposes aforesaid, and it is +desirable to protect such persons from the effects of fraud or +miscalculation.” This preamble went on to recite that the +provisions of preceding acts had been found insufficient for these +purposes, and great abuses had prevailed in many societies +established under their authority. By this statute a friendly +society was defined as “an institution, whereby it is intended +to provide, by contribution, on the principle of mutual insurance, +for the maintenance or assistance of the contributors thereto, +their wives or children, in sickness, infancy, advanced age, +widowhood or any other natural state or contingency, whereof +the occurrence is susceptible of calculation by way of average.” +It will be seen that this act dealt exclusively with the scientific +aspect of the societies, and had nothing to say to the element +of good fellowship. Rules and tables were to be submitted by +the persons intending to form a society to the justices, who, +before confirming them, were to satisfy themselves that the contingencies +which the society was to provide against were within +the meaning of the act, and that the formation of the society +would be useful and beneficial, regard being had to the existence +of other societies in the same district. No tables or rules connected +with calculation were to be confirmed by the justices until +they had been approved by two persons at least, known to be +professional actuaries or persons skilled in calculation, as fit +and proper, according to the most correct calculation of which +the nature of the case would admit. The justices in quarter +sessions were also by this act authorized to publish general rules +for the formation and government of friendly societies within +their county. The practical effect of this statute in requiring that +the societies formed under it should be established on sound +principles does not appear to have been as great as might have +been expected. The justices frequently accepted as “persons +skilled in calculation” local schoolmasters and others who had +no real knowledge of the technical difficulties of the subject, +while the restrictions upon registry served only to increase the +number of societies established without becoming registered.</p> + +<p>In 1829 the law relating to friendly societies was entirely reconstructed +by an act of that year, and a barrister was appointed +under that act to examine the rules of societies, and ascertain +that they were in conformity to law and to the provisions of the +act. The barrister so appointed was John Tidd Pratt (1797-1870); +and no account of friendly societies would be complete +that did not do justice to the remarkable public service rendered +by this gentleman. For forty years, though he had by statute +really very slight authority over the societies, his name exercised +the widest influence, and the numerous reports and publications +by which he endeavoured to impress upon the public mind sound +principles of management of friendly societies, and to expose +those which were managed upon unsound principles, made him +a terror to evil-doers. On the other hand, he lent with readiness +the aid of his legal knowledge and great mental activity to assisting +well-intentioned societies in coming within the provisions +of the acts, and thus gave many excellent schemes a legal +organization.</p> + +<p>By the act of 1829, in lieu of the discretion as to whether the +formation of the proposed society would be useful and beneficial, +and the requirement of the actuarial certificate to the tables, it was +enacted that the justices were to satisfy themselves that the +tables proposed to be used might be adopted with safety to all +parties concerned. This provision, of course, became a dead +letter and was repealed in 1834. Thenceforth, societies were +free to establish themselves upon what conditions and with what +rates they chose, provided only they satisfied the barrister that +the rules were “calculated to carry into effect the intention of the +parties framing them,” and were “in conformity to law.”</p> + +<p>By an act of 1846 the barrister certifying the rules +was constituted “Registrar of Friendly Societies,” and the +rules of all societies were brought together under his custody. +An actuarial certificate was to be obtained before any society +could be registered “for the purpose of securing any benefit +dependent on the laws of sickness and mortality.” In 1850 the +acts were again repealed and consolidated with amendments. +Societies were divided into two classes, “certified” and +“registered.” The certified societies were such as obtained a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>219</span> +certificate to their tables by an actuary possessing a given qualification, +who was required to set forth the data of sickness and +mortality upon which he proceeded, and the rate of interest +assumed in the calculations. All other societies were to be +simply registered. Very few societies were constituted of the +“certified” class. The distinction of classes was repealed and +the acts were again consolidated in 1855. Under this act, which +admitted of all possible latitude to the framers of rules of societies, +21,875 societies were registered, a large number of them being +lodges or courts of affiliated orders, and the act continued in +force till the end of 1875.</p> + +<p>The Friendly Societies Act 1875 and the several acts amending +it are still, in effect, the law by which these societies are regulated, +though in form they have been replaced by two consolidating +acts, viz. the Friendly Societies Act 1896 and the Collecting +Societies and Industrial Assurance Companies Act 1896. This +legislation still bears the permissive and elastic character which +marked the more successful of the previous acts, but it provides +ampler means to members of ascertaining and remedying defects of +management and of restraining fraud. The business of registry is +under the control of a chief registrar, who has an assistant registrar +in each of the three countries, with an actuary. An appeal to the +chief registrar in the case of the refusal of an assistant registrar +to register a society or an amendment of rules, and in the case of +suspension or cancelling of registry, is interposed before appeal +is to be made to the High Court. Registry under a particular +name may be refused if in the opinion of the registrar the name +is likely to deceive the members or the public as to the nature +of the society or as to its identity. It is the duty of the chief +registrar, among other things, to require from every society a +return in proper form each year of its receipts and expenditure, +funds and effects; and also once every five years a valuation of +its assets and liabilities. Upon the application of a certain +proportion of the members, varying according to the magnitude +of the society, the chief registrar may appoint an inspector to +examine into its affairs, or may call a general meeting of the +members to consider and determine any matter affecting its +interests. These are powers which have been used with excellent +effect. Cases have occurred in which fraud has been detected +and punished by this means that could not probably have been +otherwise brought to light. In others a system of mismanagement +has been exposed and effectually checked. The power of calling +special meetings has enabled societies to remedy defects in their +rules, to remove officers guilty of misconduct, &c., where the +procedure prescribed by the rules was for some reason or other +inapplicable. Upon an application of a like proportion of members +the chief registrar may, if he finds that the funds of a society +are insufficient to meet the existing claims thereon, or that +the rates of contribution are insufficient to cover the benefits +assured (upon which he consults his actuary), order the society +to be dissolved, and direct how its funds are to be applied. +Authority is given to the chief registrar to direct the expense +(preliminary, incidental, &c.) of an inspection or special +meeting to be defrayed by the members or officers, or former +members or officers, of a society, if he does not think they +should be defrayed either by the applicants or out of the +society’s funds. He is also empowered, with the approval of +the treasury, to exempt any friendly society from the provisions +of the Collecting Societies Act if he considers it to be one to +which those provisions ought not to apply. Every society registered +after 1895, to which these provisions do apply, is to use the +words “Collecting Society” as the last words of its name.</p> + +<p>The law as to the membership of infants has been altered three +times. The act of 1875 allowed existing societies to continue +any rule or practice of admitting children as members that was +in force at its passing, and prohibited membership under sixteen +years of age in any other case, except the case of a juvenile +society composed wholly of members under that age. The +treasury made special regulations for the registry of such juvenile +societies. In 1887 the maximum age of their members was +extended to twenty-one. In 1895 it was enacted that no society +should have any members under one year of age, whether +authorized by an existing rule or not; and that every society +should be entitled to make a rule admitting members at any age +over one year, but by the Friendly Societies Act 1908 membership +was permitted to minors under the age of one year. The +Treasury, upon the enactment of 1895 coming into operation, +rescinded its regulations for the registry of juvenile societies; +and though it is still the practice to submit for registry societies +wholly composed of persons under twenty-one, these societies +in no way differ from other societies, except in the circumstances +that they are obliged to seek officers and a committee of management +from outside, as no member of the committee of any society +can be under twenty-one years of age. In order to promote the +discontinuance of this anomalous proceeding of creating societies +under the Friendly Societies Act, which, by the conditions of +their existence, are unable to be self-governing, the act provides +an easy method of amalgamating juvenile societies and ordinary +societies or branches, or of distributing the members and the +funds of a juvenile society among a number of branches. The +liability of schoolboys and young working lads to sickness is +small, and these societies frequently accumulate funds, which, +as their membership is temporary, remain unclaimed and are +sometimes misapplied.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The legislation of 1875 and 1876 was the result of the labours of +a royal commission of high authority, presided over by Sir Stafford +Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh), which sat from 1870 to 1874, +and prosecuted an exhaustive inquiry into the organization and +condition of the various classes of friendly societies. Their reports +occupy more than a dozen large bluebooks. They divided registered +friendly societies into 13 classes.</p> + +<p>The first class included the affiliated societies or “orders,” such +as the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, the Ancient Order of +Foresters, the Rechabites, Druids, &c. These societies have a +central body, either situated in some large town, as in the case of the +Manchester Unity, or moving from place to place, as in that of the +Foresters. Under this central body, the country is (in most cases) +parcelled out into districts, and these districts again consist each of +a number of independent branches, called “lodges,” “courts,” +“tents,” or “divisions,” having a separate fund administered by +themselves, but contributing also to a fund under the control of +the central body. Besides these great orders, there were smaller +affiliated bodies, each having more than 1000 members; and the +affiliated form of society appears to have great attraction. Indeed, +in the colony of Victoria, Australia, all the existing friendly societies +are of this class. The orders have their “secrets,” but these, it +may safely be said, are of a very innocent character, and merely +serve the purpose of identifying a member of a distant branch by his +knowledge of the “grip,” and of the current password, &c. Indeed +they are now so far from being “secret societies” that their meetings +are attended by reporters and the debates published in the newspapers, +and the Order of Foresters has passed a wise resolution +expunging from its publications all affectation of mystery.</p> + +<p>Most of the lodges existing before 1875 have converted themselves +into registered branches. The requirement that for that purpose a +vote of three-fourths should be necessary was altered in 1895 to a +bare majority vote. The provisions as to settlement of disputes were +extended in 1885 to every description of dispute between branches +and the central body, and in 1895 it was provided that the forty +days after which a member may apply to the court to settle a dispute +where the society fails to do so, shall not begin to run until application +has been made in succession to all the tribunals created by the order +for the purpose. In 1887 it was enacted that no body which had been +a registered branch should be registered as a separate society except +upon production of a certificate from the order that it had seceded +or been expelled; and in 1895 it was further enacted that no such +body should, after secession or expulsion, use any name or number +implying that it is still a branch of the order. The orders generally, +especially the greater ones, have carefully supervised the valuations +of their branches, and have urged and, as far as circumstances have +rendered it practicable, have enforced upon the branches measures +for diminishing the deficiencies which the valuations have disclosed. +They have organized plans by which branches disposed to make an +effort to help themselves in this matter may be assisted out of a +central fund. The second class was made up of “general societies,” +principally existing in London, of which the commissioners enumerated +8 with nearly 60,000 members, and funds amounting to a +quarter of a million.</p> + +<p>The third class included the “county societies.” These societies +have been but feebly supported by those for whose benefit they are +instituted, having all exacted high rates of contribution, in order +to secure financial soundness.</p> + +<p>Class 4, “local town societies,” is a very numerous one. Among +some of the larger societies may be mentioned the “Chelmsford +Provident,” the “Brighton and Sussex Mutual,” the “Cannon +Street, Birmingham,” the “Birmingham General Provident.” In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>220</span> +this group might also be included the interesting societies which are +established among the Jewish community. They differ from ordinary +friendly societies partly in the nature of the benefits granted upon +death, which are intended to compensate for loss of employment +during the time of ceremonial seclusion enjoined by the Jewish law, +which is called “sitting shiva.” They also provide a cab for the +mourners and rabbi, and a tombstone for the departed, and the +same benefits as an ordinary friendly society during sickness. Some +also provide a place of worship. Of these the “Pursuers of Peace” +(enrolled in December 1797), the “Bikhur Cholim, or Visitors +of the Sick” (April 1798), the “Hozier Holim” (1804), may be +mentioned.</p> + +<p>Class 5 was “local village and country societies,” including the +small public-house clubs which abound in the villages and rural +districts, a large proportion of which are unregistered.</p> + +<p>Class 6 was formed of “particular trade societies.”</p> + +<p>Class 7 was “dividing societies.” These were before 1875 unauthorized +by law, though they were very attractive to the members. +Their practice is usually to start afresh every January, paying a +subscription somewhat in excess of that usually charged by an +ordinary friendly society, out of which a sick allowance is granted +to any member who may fall sick during the year, and at Christmas +the balance not so applied is divided among the members equally, +with the exception of a small sum left to begin the new year with. +The mischief of the system is that, as there is no accumulation of +funds, the society cannot provide for prolonged sickness or old age, +and must either break up altogether or exclude its sick and aged +members at the very time when they most need its help. This, +however, has not impaired the popularity of the societies, and the +act of 1875, framed on the sound principle that the protection of +the law should not be withheld from any form of association, enables +a society to be registered with a rule for dividing its funds, provided +only that all existing claims upon the society are to be met before +a division takes place.</p> + +<p>Class 8, “deposit friendly societies,” combine the characteristics +of a savings bank with those of a friendly society. They were +devised by the Hon. and Rev. S. Best, on the principle that a certain +proportion of the sick allowance is to be raised out of a member’s +separate deposit account, which, if not so used, is retained for his +benefit. Their advantages are in the encouragement they offer to +saving, and in meeting the selfish objection sometimes raised to +friendly societies, that the man who is not sick gets nothing for his +money; their disadvantage is in their failing to meet cases of sickness +so prolonged as to exhaust the whole of the member’s own deposit.</p> + +<p>Class 9, “collecting societies,” are so called because their contributions +are received through a machinery of house-to-house +collection. These were the subject of much laborious investigation +and close attention on the part of the commissioners. They deal +with a lower class of the community, both with respect to means +and to intelligence, than that from which the members of ordinary +friendly societies are drawn. The large emoluments gained by the +officers and collectors, the high percentage of expenditure (often exceeding +half the contributions), and the excessive frequency of +lapsing of insurances point to mischiefs in their management. “The +radical evil of the whole system (the commissioners remark) appears +to us to lie in the employment of collectors, otherwise than under +the direct supervision and control of the members, a supervision and +control which we fear to be absolutely unattainable in burial societies +that are not purely local.” On the other hand, it must be conceded +that these societies extend the benefits of life insurance to a class +which the other societies cannot reach, namely, the class that will +not take the trouble to attend at an office, but must be induced to +effect an insurance by a house-to-house canvasser, and be regularly +visited by the collector to ensure their paying the contributions. +To many such persons these societies, despite all their errors of +constitution and management, have been of great benefit. The great +source of these errors lies in a tendency on the part of the managers +of the societies to forget that they are simply trustees, and to look +upon the concern as their own personal property to be managed for +their own benefit. These societies are of two kinds, local and general. +For the general societies the act of 1875 made certain stringent +provisions. Each member was to be furnished with a copy of the +rules for one penny, and a signed policy for the same charge. Forfeiture +of benefit for non-payment is not to be enforced without +fourteen days’ written notice. The transfer of a member from one +society to another was not to be made without his written consent +and notice to the society affected. No collector is to be a manager, +or vote or take part at any meeting. At least one general meeting +was to be held every year, of which notice must be given either by +advertisement or by letter or post card to each member. The +balance-sheet is to be open for inspection seven days before the +meeting, and to be certified by a public accountant, not an officer of +the society. Disputes could be settled by justices, or county courts, +notwithstanding anything in the rules of the society to the contrary. +Closely associated with the question of the management of these +societies is that of the risk incurred by infant life, through the +facilities offered by these societies for making insurances on the +death of children. That this is a real risk is certain from the records +of the assizes, and from many circumstances of suspicion; but the +extent of it cannot be measured, and has probably been exaggerated. +It has never been lawful to assure more than £6 on the death of a +child under five years of age, or more than £10 on the death of one +under ten. Previous to the act of 1875, however, there was no +machinery for ascertaining that the law was complied with, or for +enforcing it. This is supplied by that act, though still somewhat +imperfectly. When the bill went up to the House of Lords, an +amendment was made, reducing the limit of assurance on a child +under three years of age to £3, but this amendment was unfortunately +disagreed with by the House of Commons.</p> + +<p>Class 10, annuity societies, prevail in the west of England. These +societies are few, and their business is diminishing. Most of them +originated at the time when government subsidized friendly societies +by allowing them £4 : 11 : 3% per annum interest. Now annuities +may be purchased direct from the National Debt commissioners. +These societies are more numerous, however, in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Class 11, female societies, are numerous. Many of them resemble +affiliated orders at least in name, calling themselves Female Foresters, +Odd Sisters, Loyal Orangewomen, Comforting Sisters and so forth. +In their rules may be found such a provision as that a member shall +be fined who does not “behave as becometh an Orangewoman.” +Many are unregistered. In the northern counties of England they are +sometimes termed “life boxes,” doubtless from the old custom of +placing the contributions in a box. The trustees, treasurer, and +committee are usually females, but very frequently the secretary +is a man, paid a small salary.</p> + +<p>Under Class 12 the commissioners included the societies for +various purposes which were authorized by the secretary of state to +be registered under the Friendly Societies Act of 1855, comprising +working-men’s clubs, and certain specially authorized societies, +as well as others that are now defined to be friendly societies. Among +these purposes are assisting members in search of employment; +assisting members during slack seasons of trade; granting temporary +relief to members in distressed circumstances; purchase of coals and +other necessaries to be supplied to members; relief or maintenance +in case of lameness, blindness, insanity, paralysis, or bodily hurt +through accidents; also, the assurance against loss by disease or +death of cattle employed in trade or agriculture; relief in case of +shipwreck or loss or damage to boats or nets; and societies for social +intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, +rational recreation, &c., called working-men’s clubs.</p> + +<p>Class 13 was composed of cattle insurance societies.</p> + +<p>These are the thirteen classes into which the commissioners +divided registered friendly societies. There were 26,034 societies +enrolled or certified under the various acts for friendly societies +in force between 1793 and 1855; and, as we have seen, 21,875 +societies registered under the act of 1855 before the 1st January +1876, when the act of 1875 came into operation. The total therefore +of societies to which a legal constitution had been given was +47,909. Of these 26,087 were presumed to be in existence when +the registrar called for his annual return, but only 11,282 furnished +the return required. These had 3,404,187 members, and £9,336,946 +funds. Twenty-two societies returned over 10,000 members each; +nine over 30,000. One society (the Royal Liver Friendly Society, +Liverpool, the largest of the collecting societies) returned 682,371 +members. The next in order was one of the same class, the United +Assurance Society, Liverpool, with 159,957 members; but in all +societies of this class the membership consists very largely of infants. +The average of members in the 11,260 societies with less +than 10,000 members each was only 171.</p> + +<p>Such were the registered societies; but there remained behind a +large body of unregistered societies. With increased knowledge of +the advantages of registration,<a name="fa2c" id="fa2c" href="#ft2c"><span class="sp">2</span></a> and of the true principles upon +which friendly societies should be established, the number of unregistered +societies, in comparison with those registered, ought to +become much less.</p> + +<p>On the actuarial side it is in the highest degree essential to the +interests of their members that friendly societies should be financially +sound,—in other words, that they should throughout their existence +be able to meet the engagements into which they have entered with +their members. For this purpose it is necessary that the members’ +contributions should be so fixed as to prove adequate, with proper +management, to provide the benefits promised to the members. +These benefits almost entirely depend upon the contingencies of +health and life; that is, they take the form of payments to members +when sick, of payments to members upon attaining given ages, or +of payments upon members’ deaths, and frequently a member is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>221</span> +assured for all these benefits, viz. a weekly payment if at any time +sick before attaining a certain age, a weekly payment for the +remainder of life after attaining that age, and a sum to be paid upon +his death. Of course the object of the allowance in sickness is to +provide a substitute for the weekly wage lost in consequence of being +unable to work, and the object of the weekly payment after attaining +a certain age, when the member will probably be too infirm to be +able to earn a living by the exercise of his calling or occupation, is +to provide him with the necessaries of life, and so enable him to +be independent of poor relief. There is every reason to believe that, +when a large group of persons of the same age and calling are observed, +there will be found to prevail among them, taken one with another, +an average number of days’ sickness, as well as an average rate of +mortality, in passing through each year of life, which can be very +nearly predicted from the results furnished by statistics based upon +observations previously made upon similarly circumstanced groups. +Assuming, therefore, the necessary statistics to be attainable, the +computation of suitable rates of contribution to be paid by the +members of a society in return for certain allowances during sickness, +or upon attaining a certain age, or upon death, can be readily made +by an actuarial expert. Accordingly, to furnish these statistics, the +act of 1875, in continuation of an enactment which first appeared +in a statute passed in 1829, required every registered society to make +quinquennial returns of the sickness and mortality experienced by +its members. By the year 1880 ten periods of five years had been +completed, and at the end of each of them a number of returns had +been received. Some of these had been tabulated by actuaries, the +latest tabulation being of those for the five years ending 1855. +There remained untabulated five complete sets of returns for the +five subsequent quinquennial periods. It was resolved that these +should be tabulated once for all, and it was considered that they +would afford sufficient material for the construction of tables of +sickness and mortality that might be adopted for the future as +standard tables for friendly societies; and that it would be +inexpedient to impose any longer on the societies the burden of +making such returns. This requirement of the act was accordingly +repealed in 1882. The result of the tabulation appeared in 1896, +in a bluebook of 1367 folio pages, containing tables based upon the +experience of nearly four and a half million years of life. These +tables showed generally, as compared with previous observations, +an increased liability to sickness. This inference has been confirmed +by the observations of Mr Alfred W. Watson, actuary to the Independent +Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity Friendly Society, +on his investigation of the sickness and mortality experience of that +society during the five years 1893-1897, which extended over +800,000 individuals, more than 3,000,000 years of life and 7,000,000 +weeks of sickness.</p> + +<p>The establishment of the National Conference of Friendly Societies +by the orders and a few other societies has been of great service in +obtaining improvements in the law, and in enabling the societies +strongly to represent to the government and the legislature any +grievance entertained by them. A complaint that membership of a +shop club was made by certain employers a condition of employment, +and that the rules of the club required the members to withdraw +from other societies, led to the appointment of a departmental +committee, who recommended that such a condition of employment +should be made illegal, except in certain cases, and that in every +case it should be illegal to make the withdrawal from a society a +condition of employment. In 1902 an act was passed based upon +this recommendation.</p> + +<p>It is an increasing practice among societies of combining together +to obtain medical attendance and medicine for their members by +the formation of medical associations. In 1895 trade unions were +enabled to join in such associations, and it was provided that a +contributing society or union should not withdraw from an association +except upon three months’ notice. The working of these +associations has been viewed with dissatisfaction by members of the +medical profession, and it has been suggested that a board of conciliation +should be formed consisting of representatives of the +Conference of Friendly Societies and of an equal number of medical +men.</p> + +<p>The following figures are derived from returns of registered +societies and branches of registered societies to the beginning of 1905:</p> + +<table class="ws" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="tccm allb"> </td> <td class="tccm allb">Number of<br />Returns.</td> <td class="tccm allb">Number of<br />Members.</td> <td class="tccm allb">Amount of<br />Funds.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Ordinary Friendly Societies (classes 2 to 8, 10 and 11)</td> <td class="tcr rb">6,938</td> <td class="tcr rb">3,132,065</td> <td class="tcr rb">£17,042,398</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Societies having Branches (class 1)</td> <td class="tcr rb">20,819</td> <td class="tcr rb">2,606,029</td> <td class="tcr rb">23,446,330</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Collecting Friendly Societies (class 9)</td> <td class="tcr rb">45</td> <td class="tcr rb">7,448,549</td> <td class="tcr rb">7,862,569</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Benevolent Societies (class 12)</td> <td class="tcr rb">75</td> <td class="tcr rb">26,509</td> <td class="tcr rb">317,913</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Working Men’s Clubs (class 12)</td> <td class="tcr rb">913</td> <td class="tcr rb">236,298</td> <td class="tcr rb">318,945</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Specially Authorized Societies (class 12)</td> <td class="tcr rb">122</td> <td class="tcr rb">75,089</td> <td class="tcr rb">628,759</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Specially Authorized Loan Societies (class 12)</td> <td class="tcr rb">517</td> <td class="tcr rb">115,511</td> <td class="tcr rb">771,578</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Medical Societies (see last paragraph)</td> <td class="tcr rb">95</td> <td class="tcr rb">324,145</td> <td class="tcr rb">62,049</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Cattle Insurance Societies (class 13)</td> <td class="tcr rb">57</td> <td class="tcr rb">3,736</td> <td class="tcr rb">7,746</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tcl lb rb">Shop Clubs (under act of 1902)</td> <td class="tcr rb">7</td> <td class="tcr rb">10,859</td> <td class="tcr rb">773</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tcl lb bb"> </td> <td class="tcr allb">29,588</td> <td class="tcr allb">13,978,790</td> <td class="tcr allb">£50,459,060</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><i>British Empire.</i>—In many of the British colonies legislation +on the subject similar to that of the mother-country has been +adopted. In those forming the Commonwealth of Australia +and in New Zealand the affiliated orders hold the field, there +being few, if any, independent friendly societies. The state +of Victoria has more than 1000 lodges with more than 100,000 +members and nearly 1½ million pounds funds, averaging nearly +£14 per member. Besides the registrar there is a government +actuary for friendly societies, by whom the liabilities and +accounts of all societies are valued every five years, a method +which ensures uniformity in the processes of valuation. The +friendly societies in the other Australasian states are not +so numerous nor so wealthy, but are in each case under the +supervision of vigilant public officials. In New Zealand a friendly +society was established at New Plymouth in 1841, the first year +of that settlement. The formation of a society at Nelson was +resolved upon by the emigrants on shipboard on their passage +out, and the first meeting was held among the tall fern near the +beach a few days after they landed. The societies have now a +registrar, an actuary, a revising barrister and two public valuers. +Investigations have been made into their sickness experience, +with results which compare favourably with those of the Manchester +Unity and the registry office in the mother-country +until the higher ages, when greater sickness appears to result +from lower mortality. The average funds per member are +£19, 10s. Nearly four-fifths are invested in the purchase or on +mortgage of real estate.</p> + +<p>In Cape Colony no society is allowed to register unless it be +shown to the satisfaction of the registrar that the contributions +which it proposes to charge are adequate to provide for the +benefits which it undertakes to grant. The consequence is that +little more than one-third of the existing societies are registered.</p> + +<p>In the Dominion of Canada, province of Ontario, extensive +powers of control are given to the registrar, and societies are not +admitted to registry without strict proof of their compliance +with the conditions of registry imposed by the law. Very full +returns of their transactions are required and published, and +registry is cancelled when any of the conditions of registry +cease to be observed. These conditions apply not only to societies +existing in Ontario, but to foreign societies transacting business +there.</p> + +<p>In several of the West Indian Islands statutes have been +passed on the model of British legislation and registrars have +been appointed.</p> + +<p><i>European Countries.</i>—In foreign countries the development +of friendly societies has proceeded upon different lines. Belgium +has a <i>Commission royale permanente des sociétés de secours mutuel</i>. +Under laws passed in 1851 and 1894 societies are divided into +two classes, recognized and not recognized. The recognized +societies were in 1886 only about half as many as the unrecognized. +There were in 1904 nearly 7000 recognized societies +with 700,000 members. They enjoy the privileges of incorporation, +exemption from stamp duty, gratuitous announcement in +the official Moniteur and may have free postage.</p> + +<p>In France under the second empire a scheme was prepared +for assisting friendly societies by granting them collective +insurances under government security. The societies have +the privilege of investing their funds in the Caisse des Dépôts +et Consignations, corresponding to the English National Debt +commission. The dual classification +of societies in France is into those +“authorized” and those “approved.” +By a law of the 1st of April 1898 a +friendly society may be established by +merely depositing a copy of its rules +and list of officers with the sousprefet. +Approved societies are entitled to +certain state subventions for assisting +in the purchase of old-age pensions and +otherwise. A higher council has been +established to advise on their working.</p> + +<p>In Germany a law was passed on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>222</span> +the 7th of April 1876 (amended on the 1st of June 1884) +which prescribed for registered friendly societies many things +which in England are left to the discretion of their founders; +and it provided for an amount of official interference in their +management that is wholly unknown here. The superintending +authority had a right to inspect the books of every +society, whether registered or not, and to give formal notice +to a society to call in arrears, exclude defaulters, pay benefits +or revoke illegal resolutions. A higher authority might, in +certain cases, order societies to be dissolved. These provisions +related to voluntary societies; but it was competent +for communal authorities also to order the formation of a friendly +society, and to make a regulation compelling all workmen not +already members of a society to join it. Since then the great +series of imperial statutes has been passed, commencing in 1883 +with that for sickness insurance, followed in 1884 by that for +workmen’s accident insurance, extended to sickness insurance +in 1885, developed in the laws relating to accident and sickness +insurance of persons engaged in agricultural and forestry pursuits +in 1886, of persons engaged in the building trade and of seamen +and others engaged in seafaring pursuits in 1887, and crowned +by the law relating to infirmity and old-age insurance in 1889. +Mr H. Unger, a distinguished actuary, remarks that the whole +German workman’s insurance and its executive bodies (sickness +funds, trade associations, insurance institutions) are constantly +endeavouring to improve the position of the workmen in a social +and sanitary aspect, to the benefit of internal peace and the +welfare of the German empire.</p> + +<p>In Holland it is stated that the number of burial clubs and +sickness benefit societies appears to be greater in proportion +to the population than in any other country; but that the burial +clubs do not rest upon a scientific basis, and have an unfavourable +influence upon infant mortality. Half the population are +insured in some burial club or other. The sick benefit societies +are, as in England, some in a good and some in a bad financial +condition; and legislation follows the English system of compulsory +publicity, combined with freedom of competition.</p> + +<p>In Spain friendly societies have grown out of the religious +gilds. They are regulated by an act of 1887. Their actuarial +condition appears to be backward, but to show indications of +improvement.</p> +<div class="author">(E. W. B.)</div> + +<p><i>United States.</i>—Under the title of fraternal societies are +included in the United States what are known in England as +friendly societies, having some basis of mutual help to members, +mutual insurance associations and benefit associations of all +kinds. There are various classes and a great variety of forms +of fraternal associations. It is therefore difficult to give a concrete +historical statement of their origin and growth; but, dealing +with those having benefit features for the payment of certain +amounts in case of sickness, accident or death, it is found that +their history in the United States is practically within the last +half of the 19th century. The more important of the older +organizations are the Improved Order of Red Men, founded in +1771 and reorganized in 1834; Ancient Order of Foresters, +1836; Ancient Order of Hibernians of America, 1836; United +Ancient Order of Druids, 1839; Independent Order of Rechabites, +1842; Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, founded in 1843; +Order of the United American Mechanics, 1845; Independent +Order of Free Sons of Israel, 1849; Junior Order of United +American Mechanics, 1853. A very large proportion, probably +more than one-half, of the societies which have secret organizations +pay benefits in case of sickness, accident, disability, and +funeral expenses in case of death. This class of societies grew +out of the English friendly societies and have masonic characteristics. +The Freemasons and other secret societies, while not all +having benefit features in their distinctive organizations, have +auxiliary societies with such features. There is also a class of +secret societies, based largely on masonic usages, that have for +their principal object the payment of benefits in some form. +These are the Oddfellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights +of Honour, the Royal Arcanum and some others. Many trade +unions have now adopted benefit features, especially the Typographical +Union, while many subordinate unions and great +publishing houses have mutual relief associations purely of a local +character, and some of the more important newspapers have such +mutual relief or benefit societies. The New York trade unions, +taken as a whole, have paid out large sums of money in benefits +where members have been out of work, or are sick, or are on strike +or have died. The total paid in one year for all these benefits +was over $500,000.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to give the membership of all the fraternal +associations in the United States; but, including Oddfellows, +Freemasons, purely benefit associations and all the class of the +larger fraternal organizations, the membership is over 6,000,000. +Among the more important, so far as membership is concerned, +are the Knights of Pythias, the Oddfellows, the Modern Woodmen +of America, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Improved +Order of Red Men, Royal Arcanum, Knights of the +Maccabees, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, +Foresters of America, Independent Order of Foresters, &c. +These and other organizations pay out a vast amount of money +every year in the various forms.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Since about the year 1870 a new form of benefit organization has +come into existence. This is a life insurance based on the assessment +plan, assessments being levied whenever a member dies; +or, as more recently, regular assessments being made in +<span class="sidenote">Assessment insurance.</span> +advance of death, as post-mortem assessments have proved +a fallacious method of securing the means of paying +death benefits. There are about 200 mutual benefit insurance +companies or associations in the United States conducted on the +“lodge system”; that is to say, they have regular meetings for +social purposes and for general improvement, and in their work there +is found the mysticism, forms and ceremonies which belong to +secret societies generally. These elements have proved a very strong +force in keeping this class of associations fairly intact. The “work” +of the lodges in the initiation of members and their passing through +various degrees is attractive to many people, and in small places, +remote from the amusements of the city, these lodges constitute +a resort where members can give play to their various talents. In +most of them the features of the Masonic ritual are prominent. The +amount of insurance which a single member can carry in such associations +is small. In the Knights of Honour, one of the first of this +class, policies ranging from $500 to $2000 are granted. In the Royal +Arcanum the maximum is $3000. This form of insurance may be +called co-operative, and has many elements which make the organizations +practising it stronger than the ordinary assessment insurance +companies having no stated meetings of members. These co-operative +insurance societies are organized on the federal plan—as +the Knights of Honour, for instance—having local assemblies, where +the lodge-room element is in force; state organizations, to which +the local bodies send delegates, and the national organization, which +conducts all the insurance business through its executive officers. +The local societies pay a certain given amount towards the support +of the state and national offices, and while originally they paid +death assessments, as called for, they now pay regular monthly +assessments, in order to avoid the weakness of the post-mortem +assessment. The difficulty which these organizations have in +conducting the insurance business is in keeping the average age of +membership at a low point, for with an increase in the average the +assessments increase, and many such organizations have had great +trouble to convince younger members that their assessments should +be increased to make up for the heavy losses among the older members. +The experience of these purely insurance associations has not been +sufficient yet to demonstrate their absolute soundness or desirability, +but they have enabled a large number of persons of limited means +to carry insurance at a very low rate. They have not materially +interfered with regular level premium insurance enterprises, for they +have stimulated the people to understand the benefits of insurance, +and have really been an educational force in this direction.</p> + +<p>A modern method of benefit association is found in the railway +relief departments of some of the large railway corporations. These +departments are organized upon a different plan from the +benefit features of labour organizations and secret societies, +<span class="sidenote">Railway relief departments.</span> +providing the members not only with payments on account +of death, but also with assistance of definite amounts in +case of sickness or accident, the railway companies contributing +to the funds, partly from philanthropic and partly from +financial motives. The principal railway companies in the United +States which have established these relief departments are the +Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia & Reading, the Baltimore & +Ohio, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Plant System. +The relief department benefits the employés, the railways, and the +public, because it is based upon the sound principle that the +“interests and welfare of labour, capital and society are common +and harmonious, and can be promoted more by co-operation of +effort than by antagonism and strife.” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>223</span> +The railway employés support one-twentieth of the entire population, +and most of their associations maintain organizations to provide +their members with relief and insurance. The Brotherhood of +Locomotive Engineers, the Order of Railway Conductors of America, +the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, the Brotherhood of +Railway Trainmen, the Brotherhood of Railway Trackmen, the +Switchmen’s Union, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, and the +Order of Railway Telegraphers, all have relief and benefit features. +The oldest and largest of these is the International Brotherhood of +Locomotive Engineers, founded at Detroit in August 1863. Like +other labour organizations of the higher class of workmen, the +objects of the brotherhoods of railway employés are partly social +and partly educational, but in addition to these great purposes they +seek to protect their members through relief and benefit features. +Of course the relief departments of the railway companies are +competitors of the relief and insurance features of the railway +employés orders, but both methods of providing assistance have +proved successful and beneficial.</p> + +<p>For a history of the various American organizations, see Albert C. +Stevens, <i>The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities</i> (New York, 1899); <i>Facts +for Fraternalists</i>, published by the <i>Fraternal Monitor</i>, Rochester, +N.Y.; for annual statements, “The <i>World</i> Almanac,” “Railway +Relief Departments,” “Brotherhood Relief and Insurance of +Railway Employés,” “Mutual Relief and Benefit Associations +in the Printing Trade,” “Benefit Features of American Trade +Unions,” <i>Bulletins</i> Nos. 8, 17, 19 and 22 of the U.S. Department +of Labour.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(C. D. W.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1c" id="ft1c" href="#fa1c"><span class="fn">1</span></a> The word “friend” (O.E. <i>freond</i>, Ger. <i>Freund</i>, Dutch <i>Vriend</i>) is +derived from an old Teutonic verb meaning to love. While used +generally as the opposite to enemy, it is specially the term which +connotes any degree, but particularly a high degree, of personal +goodwill, affection or regard, from which the element of sexual love +is absent.</p> + +<p><a name="ft2c" id="ft2c" href="#fa2c"><span class="fn">2</span></a> These may be briefly summed up thus:—(1) power to hold land +and vesting of property in trustees by mere appointment; (2) remedy +against misapplication of funds; (3) priority in bankruptcy or on +death of officer; (4) transfer of stock by direction of chief registrar; +(5) exemption from stamp duties; (6) membership of minors; +(7) certificates of birth and death at reduced cost; (8) investment +with National Debt Commissioners; (9) reduction of fines on admission +to copyholds; (10) discharge of mortgages by mere receipt; +(11) obligation on officers to render accounts; (12) settlement of +disputes; (13) insurance of funeral expenses for wives and children +without insurable interest; (14) nomination at death; (15) payment +without administration; (16) services of public auditors and valuers; +(17) registry of documents, of which copies may be put in evidence.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF,<a name="ar51" id="ar51"></a></span> the name adopted by a body of +Christians, who, in law and general usage, are commonly called +Quakers. Though small in number, the Society occupies a +position of singular interest. To the student of ecclesiastical +history it is remarkable as exhibiting a form of Christianity +widely divergent from the prevalent types, being a religious +fellowship which has no formulated creed demanding definite +subscription, and no liturgy, priesthood or outward sacrament, +and which gives to women an equal place with men in church +organization. The student of English constitutional history +will observe the success with which Friends have, by the mere +force of passive resistance, obtained, from the legislature and the +courts, indulgence for all their scruples and a legal recognition +of their customs. In American history they occupy an +important place because of the very prominent part which +they played in the colonization of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.</p> + +<p>The history of Quakerism in England may be divided into +three periods:—(1) from the first preaching of George Fox in +1647 to the Toleration Act 1689; (2) from 1689 to the evangelical +movement in 1835; (3) from 1835 to the present time.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Period 1647-1689.</i>—George Fox (1624-1691), the son of a +weaver of Drayton-in-the-Clay (now called Fenny Drayton) in +Leicestershire, was the founder of the Society. He +began his public ministry in 1647, but there is no +<span class="sidenote">George Fox.</span> +evidence to show that he set out to form a separate +religious body. Impressed by the formalism and deadness of +contemporary Christianity (of which there is much evidence +in the confessions of the Puritan writers themselves) he emphasized +the importance of repentance and personal striving after +the truth. When, however, his preaching attracted followers, +a community began to be formed, and traces of organization +and discipline may be noted in very early times. In 1652 a +number of people in Westmorland and north Lancashire who +had separated from the common national worship,<a name="fa1d" id="fa1d" href="#ft1d"><span class="sp">1</span></a> came under +the influence of Fox, and it was this community (if it can be so +called) at Preston Patrick which formed the nucleus of the +Quaker church. For two years the movement spread rapidly +throughout the north of England, and in 1654 more than sixty +ministers went to Norwich, London, Bristol, the Midlands, +Wales and other parts. Fox and his fellow-preachers spoke +whenever opportunity offered,—sometimes in churches (declining, +for the most part, to occupy the pulpit), sometimes in barns, +sometimes at market crosses. The insistence on an inward +spiritual experience was the great contribution made by Friends +to the religious life of the time, and to thousands it came as a new +revelation. There is evidence to show that the arrangement +for this “publishing of Truth” rested mainly with Fox, and +that the expenses of it and of the foreign missions were borne +out of a common fund. Margaret Fell (1614-1702), wife of +Thomas Fell (1598-1658), vice-chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, +and afterwards of George Fox, opened her house, Swarthmore +Hall near Ulverston, to these preachers and probably +contributed largely to this fund.</p> + +<p>Their insistence on the personal aspect of religious experience +made it impossible for Friends to countenance the setting apart +of any man or building for the purpose of divine worship to +the exclusion of all others. The operation of the Spirit was in +no way limited to time, or individual or place. The great stress +which they laid upon this aspect of Christian truth caused them +to be charged with unbelief in the current orthodox views as +to the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the person and work of +Christ, a charge which they always denied. Contrary to the +Puritan teaching of the time, they insisted on the possibility, +in this life, of complete victory over sin. Robert Barclay, writing +some twenty years later, admits of degrees of perfection, and the +possibility of a fall from it (<i>Apology</i>, Prop. viii.). Such teaching +necessarily brought Fox and his friends into conflict with all +the religious bodies of England, and they were continually +engaged in strife with the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, +Episcopalians and the wilder sectaries, such as the Ranters and +the Muggletonians. The strife was often conducted on both sides +with a zeal and bitterness of language which were characteristic +of the period. Although there was little or no stress laid +on either the joys or the terrors of a future life, the movement +was not infrequently accompanied by most of those physical +symptoms which usually go with vehement appeals to the +conscience and emotions of a rude multitude. It was owing to +these physical manifestations that the name “Quaker” was +either first given or was regarded as appropriate when given for +another reason (see Fox’s <i>Journal</i> concerning Justice Bennet at +Derby in 1650 and Barclay’s <i>Apology</i>, Prop. <span class="sc">ii</span>, § 8). The early +Friends definitely asserted that those who did not know quaking +and trembling were strangers to the experience of Moses, David +and other saints.</p> + +<p>Some of the earliest adherents indulged in extravagances of +no measured kind. Some of them imitated the Hebrew prophets +in the performance of symbolic acts of denunciation, foretelling +or warning, going barefoot, or in sackcloth or undress, and, in a +few cases, for brief periods, altogether naked; even women in +some cases distinguished themselves by extravagance of conduct. +The case of James Nayler (1617?-1660), who, in spite of Fox’s +grave warning, allowed Messianic homage to be paid to him, is the +best known of these instances; they are to be explained partly +by mental disturbance, resulting from the undue prominence of +a single idea, and partly by the general religious excitement of +the time and the rudeness of manners prevailing in the classes of +society from which many of these individuals came. It must be +remembered that at this time, and for long after, there was no +definite or formal membership or system of admission to the +society, and it was open to any one by attending the meetings +to gain the reputation of being a Quaker.</p> + +<p>The activity of the early Friends was not confined to England +or even to the British Isles. Fox and others travelled in America +and the West India Islands; another reached Jerusalem and +preached against the superstition of the monks; Mary Fisher +(fl. 1652-1697), “a religious maiden,” visited Smyrna, the +Morea and the court of Mahommed IV. at Adrianople; Alexander +Parker (1628-1689) went to Africa; others made their +way to Rome; two women were imprisoned by the Inquisition +at Malta; two men passed into Austria and Hungary; and +William Penn, George Fox and several others preached in +Holland and Germany.</p> + +<p>It was only gradually that the Quaker community clothed +itself with an organization. The beginning of this appears to be +due to William Dewsbury (1621-1688) and George Fox; it was +not until 1666 that a complete system of church organization +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id="page224"></a>224</span> +was established. The introduction of an ordered system and +discipline was, naturally, viewed with some suspicion by people +taught to believe that the inward light of each individual man +was the only true guide for his conduct. The project met with +determined opposition for about twenty years (1675-1695) +from persons of considerable repute in the body. John Wilkinson +and John Story of Westmorland, together with William Rogers +of Bristol, raised a party against Fox concerning the management +of the affairs of the society, regarding with suspicion any fixed +arrangement for meetings for conducting church business, and +in fact hardly finding a place for such meetings at all. They +stood for the principle of Independency against the Presbyterian +form of church government which Fox had recently established +in the “Monthly Meetings” (see below). They opposed all +arrangement for the orderly distribution of travelling ministers +to different localities, and even for the payment of their expenses +(see above); they also strongly objected to any disciplinary +power being entrusted to the women’s separate meetings for +business, which had become of considerable importance after +the Plague (1665) and the Fire of London (1666) in consequence +of the need for poor relief. They also claimed the right to meet +secretly for worship in time of persecution (see below). They +drew a considerable following away with them and set up a +rival organization, but before long a number returned to their +original leader. William Rogers set forth his views in <i>The +Christian Quaker</i>, 1680; the story of the dissension is told, to +some extent, in <i>The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the +Commonwealth</i>, by R. Barclay (not the “Apologist”); the best +account is given in a pamphlet entitled <i>Micah’s Mother</i> by John +S. Rowntree.</p> + +<p>Robert Barclay (<i>q.v.</i>), a descendant of an ancient Scottish +family, who had received a liberal education, principally in Paris, +at the Scots College, of which his uncle was rector, joined the +Quakers about 1666, and William Penn (<i>q.v.</i>) came to them about +two years later. The Quakers had always been active controversialists, +and a great body of tracts and papers was issued by +them; but hitherto these had been of small account from a +literary point of view. Now, however, a more logical and +scholarly aspect was given to their literature by the writings of +Barclay, especially his <i>Apology for the True Christian Divinity</i> +published in Latin (1676) and in English (1678), and by the +works of Penn, amongst which <i>No Cross No Crown</i> and the +<i>Maxims</i> or <i>Fruits of Solitude</i> are the best known.</p> + +<p>During the whole time between their rise and the passing of +the Toleration Act 1689, the Quakers were the object of almost +continuous persecution which they endured with +extraordinary constancy and patience; they insisted +<span class="sidenote">Persecution.</span> +on the duty of meeting openly in time of persecution, +declining to hold secret assemblies for worship as other +Nonconformists were doing. The number who died in prison +approached 400, and at least 100 more perished from violence +and ill-usage. A petition to the first parliament of Charles II. +stated that 3179 had been imprisoned; the number rose to 4500 +in 1662, the Fifth Monarchy outbreak, in which Friends were +in no way concerned, being largely responsible for this increase. +There is no evidence to show that they were in any way connected +with any of the plots of the Commonwealth or Restoration +periods. A petition to James II. in 1685 stated that 1460 were +then in prison. Under the Quaker Act of 1662 and the Conventicle +Act of 1664 a number were transported out of England, +and under the last-named act and that of 1670 (the second +Conventicle Act) hundreds of households were despoiled of all +their goods. The penal laws under which Friends suffered may +be divided chronologically into those of the Commonwealth and +the Restoration periods. Under the former there were a few +charges of plotting against the government. Several imprisonments, +including that of George Fox at Derby in 1650-1651, were +brought about under the Blasphemy Act of 1650, which inflicted +penalties on any one who asserted himself to be very God or equal +with God, a charge to which the Friends were peculiarly liable +owing to their doctrine of perfection. After a royalist insurrection +in 1655, a proclamation was issued announcing that persons +suspected of Roman Catholicism would be required to take an +oath abjuring the papal authority and transubstantiation. The +Quakers, accused as they were of being Jesuits, and refusing to +take the oath, suffered under this proclamation and under the +more stringent act of 1656. A considerable number were flogged +under the Vagrancy Acts (39 Eliz. c. 4; 7 Jac. I. c. 4), which were +strained to cover the case of itinerant Quaker preachers. They +also came under the provisions of the acts of 1644, 1650 and 1656 +directed against travelling on the Lord’s day. The interruption +of preachers when celebrating divine service rendered the offender +liable to three months’ imprisonment under a statute of the first +year of Mary, but Friends generally waited to speak till the +service was over.<a name="fa2d" id="fa2d" href="#ft2d"><span class="sp">2</span></a> The Lord’s Day Act 1656 also enacted +penalties against any one disturbing the service, but apart from +statute many Friends were imprisoned for open contempt of +ministers and magistrates. At the Restoration 700 Friends, +imprisoned for contempt and some minor offences, were set at +liberty. After the Restoration there began a persecution of +Friends and other Nonconformists <i>as such</i>, notwithstanding the +king’s Declaration of Breda which had proclaimed liberty for +tender consciences as long as no disturbance of the peace was +caused. Among the most common causes of imprisonment was +the practice adopted by judges and magistrates of tendering to +Friends (particularly when no other charge could be proved +against them) the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance (5 Eliz. +c. 1 & 7 Jac. I. c. 6). The refusal in any circumstance to take +an oath led to much suffering. The Act 3 Jac. I. c. 4, passed +in consequence of the Gunpowder Plot, against Roman Catholics +for not attending church, was put in force against Friends, and +under it enormous fines were levied. The Quaker Act 1662 +and the Conventicle Acts of 1664 and 1670, designed to enforce +attendance at church, and inflicting severe penalties on those +attending other religious gatherings, were responsible for the +most severe persecution of all. The act of 1670 gave to informers +a pecuniary interest (they were to have one-third of the fine +imposed) in hunting down Nonconformists who broke the law, +and this and other statutes were unduly strained to secure convictions. +A somewhat similar act of 35 Eliz. c. 1., enacting even +more severe penalties, had never been repealed, and was sometimes +put in force against Friends. The Militia Act 1663 (14 Car. +II. c. 3), enacting fines against those who refused to find a man for +the militia, was occasionally put in force. The refusal to pay +tithes and other ecclesiastical demands led to continuous and +heavy distraints, under the various laws made in that behalf. +This state of things continued to some extent into the 19th +century. For further information see “The Penal Laws affecting +Early Friends in England” (from which the foregoing summary +is taken) by Wm. Chas. Braithwaite in <i>The First Publishers +of Truth</i>. On the 15th of March 1672 Charles II. issued his +declaration suspending the penal laws in ecclesiastical matters, +and shortly afterwards, by pardon under the great seal, he +released nearly 500 Quakers from prison, remitted their fines and +released such of their estates as were forfeited by <i>praemunire</i>. +It is of interest to note that, although John Bunyan was bitterly +opposed to Quakers, his friends, on hearing of the petition +contemplated by them, requested them to insert his name on the +list, and in this way he gained his freedom. The dissatisfaction +which this exercise of the royal prerogative aroused induced the +king, in the following year, to withdraw his proclamation, and, +notwithstanding appeals to him, the persecution continued +intermittently throughout his reign. On the accession of James +II. the Quakers addressed him (see above) with some hope on +account of his known friendship for William Penn, and the king +not long afterwards directed a stay of proceedings in all matters +pending in the exchequer against Quakers on the ground of non-attendance +at the national worship. In 1687 came his declaration +for liberty of conscience, and, after the Revolution of 1688, the +Toleration Act 1689 put an end to the persecution of Quakers +(along with other Dissenters) for non-attendance at church. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>225</span> +For many years after this they were liable to imprisonment for +non-payment of tithes, and, together with other Dissenters, +they remained under various civil disabilities, the gradual removal +of which is part of the general history of England. In the years +succeeding the Toleration Act at least twelve of their number +were prosecuted (often more than once in the spiritual and other +courts) for keeping school without a bishop’s licence. It is +coming to be recognized that the growth of religious toleration +owed much to the early Quakers who, with the exception of a +few Baptists at the first, stood almost alone among Dissenters in +holding their public meetings openly and regularly.</p> + +<p>The Toleration Act was not the only law of William and Mary +which benefited Quakers. The legislature has continually had +regard to their refusal to take oaths, and not only the said +act but also another of the same reign, and numerous others, +subsequently passed, have respected the peculiar scruples of +Friends (see Davis’s <i>Digest of Legislative Enactments relating +to Friends</i>, Bristol, 1820).</p> + +<p><i>2. Period 1689-1835.</i>—From the beginning of the 18th +century the zeal of the Quaker body abated. Although many +“General” and other meetings were held in different +parts of the country for the purpose of setting forth +<span class="sidenote">Period of Decline.</span> +Quakerism, the notion that the whole Christian church +would be absorbed in it, and that the Quakers were, in fact, the +church, gave place to the conception that they were “a peculiar +people” to whom, more than to others, had been given an understanding +of the will of God. The Quakerism of this period was +largely of a traditional kind; it dwelt with increasing emphasis +on the peculiarities of its dress and language; it rested much +upon discipline, which developed and hardened into rigorous +forms; and the correction or exclusion of its members occupied +more attention than did the winning of converts.</p> + +<p>Excluded from political and municipal life by the laws which +required either the taking of an oath or joining in the Lord’s +Supper according to the rites of the Established Church, excluding +themselves not only from the frivolous pursuits of pleasure, +but from music and art in general, attaining no high average +level of literary culture (though producing some men of eminence +in science and medicine), the Quakers occupied themselves +mainly with trade, the business of their Society, and the calls of +philanthropy. From early times George Fox and many others +had taken a keen interest in education, and in 1779 there was +founded at Ackworth, near Pontefract, a school for boys and +girls; this was followed by the reconstitution, in 1808, of a +school at Sidcot in the Mendips, and in 1811, of one in Islington +Road, London; it was afterwards removed to Croydon, and, +later, to Saffron Walden. Others have since been established +at York and in other parts of England and Ireland. None of +them are now reserved exclusively for the children of Friends.</p> + +<p>During this period Quakerism was sketched from the outside +by two very different men. Voltaire (<i>Dictionnaire Philosophique</i>, +“Quaker,” “Toleration”) described the body, which attracted +his curiosity, his sympathy and his sneers, with all his brilliance. +Thomas Clarkson (<i>Portraiture of Quakerism</i>) has given an +elaborate and sympathetic account of the Quakers as he knew +them when he travelled amongst them from house to house on his +crusade against the slave trade.</p> + +<p>3. <i>From 1835.</i>—During the 18th century the doctrine of the +Inward Light acquired such exclusive prominence as to bring +about a tendency to disparage, or, at least, to neglect, the written +word (the Scriptures) as being “outward” and non-essential. +In the early part of the 19th century an American Friend, Elias +Hicks, pressed this doctrine to its furthest limits, and, in doing so, +he laid stress on “Christ within” in such a way as practically +to take little account of the person and work of the “outward,” +<i>i.e.</i> the historic Christ. The result was a separation of the Society +in America into two divisions which persist to the present day +(see below, “Quakerism in America”). This led to a counter +movement in England, known as the Beacon Controversy, +from the name of a warning publication issued by Isaac Crewdson +of Manchester in 1835, advocating views of a pronounced “evangelical” +type. Much controversy ensued, and a certain number +of Friends (Beaconites as they are sometimes called) departed +from the parent stock. They left behind them, however, many +influential members, who may be described as a middle party, +and who strove to give a more “evangelical” tone to Quaker +doctrine. Joseph John Gurney of Norwich, a brother of Elizabeth +Fry, by means of his high social position and his various +writings (some published before 1835), was the most prominent +actor in this movement. Those who quitted the Society maintained, +for some little time, a separate organization of their +own, but sooner or later most of them joined the Evangelical +Church or the Plymouth Brethren.</p> + +<p>Other causes have been at work modifying the Quaker society. +The repeal of the Test Act, the admission of Quakers to Parliament +in consequence of their being allowed to affirm instead of +taking the oath (1832, when Joseph Pease was elected for South +Durham), the establishment of the University of London, and, +more recently, the opening of the universities of Oxford and +Cambridge to Nonconformists, have all had their effect upon the +body. It has abandoned its peculiarities of dress and language, +as well as its hostility to music and art, and it has cultivated a +wider taste in literature. In fact, the number of men, either +Quakers or of Quaker origin and proclivities, who occupy +positions of influence in English life is large in proportion to +the small body with which they are connected. During the 19th +century the interests of Friends became widened and they are +no longer a close community.</p> + +<p><i>Doctrine.</i>—It is not easy to state with certainty the doctrines +of a body which (in England at least) has never demanded subscription +to any creed, and whose views have undoubtedly +undergone more or less definite changes. There is not now the +sharp distinction which formerly existed between Friends and +other non-sacerdotal evangelical bodies; these have, in theory +at least, largely accepted the spiritual message of Quakerism. +By their special insistence on the fact of immediate communion +between God and man, Friends have been led into those views +and practices which still mark them off from their fellow-Christians.</p> + +<p>Nearly all their distinctive views (<i>e.g.</i> their refusal to take +oaths, their testimony against war, their disuse of a professional +ministry, and their recognition of women’s ministry) were being +put forward in England, by various individuals or sects, in the +strife which raged during the intense religious excitement of the +middle of the 17th century. Nevertheless, before the rise of the +Quakers, these views were nowhere found in conjunction as held +by any one set of people; still less were they regarded as the +outcome of any one central belief or principle. It is rather in +their emphasis on this thought of Divine communion, in their +insistence on its reasonable consequences (as it seems to them), +that Friends constitute a separate community. The appointment +of one man to preach, to the exclusion of others, whether +he feels a divine call so to do or not, is regarded as a limitation +of the work of the Spirit and an undue concentration of that +responsibility which ought to be shared by a wider circle. For +the same reason they refuse to occupy the time of worship with +an arranged programme of vocal service; they meet in silence, +<span class="sidenote">Public worship.</span> +desiring that the service of the meeting shall depend +on spiritual guidance. Thus it is left to any man or +woman to offer vocal prayer, to read the Scriptures, +or to utter such exhortation or teaching as may seem to be +called for. Of late years, in certain of their meetings on Sunday +evening, it has become customary for part of the time to be +occupied with set addresses for the purpose of instructing the +members of the congregation, or of conveying the Quaker message +to others who may be present, all their meetings for worship +being freely open to the public. In a few meetings hymns are +occasionally sung, very rarely as part of any arrangement, +but almost always upon the request of some individual for a +particular hymn appropriate to the need of the congregation. +The periods of silence are regarded as times of worship equally +with those occupied with vocal service, inasmuch as Friends +hold that robustness of spiritual life is best promoted by earnest +striving on the part of each one to know the will of God for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>226</span> +himself, and to be drawn into Christian fellowship with the +other worshippers. The points on which special stress is laid +are:—(1) the share of responsibility resting on each individual, +whether called to vocal service or not, for the right spiritual +atmosphere of the Meeting, and for the welfare of the congregation; +(2) the privilege which may be enjoyed by each worshipper +of waiting upon the Lord without relying on spoken words, +however helpful, or on other outward matters; (3) freedom +for each individual (whether a Friend or not) to speak, for the +help of others, such message as he or she may feel called to utter; +(4) a fresh sense of a divine call to deliver the message on that +particular occasion, whether previous thought has been given +to it or not. The idea which ought to underlie a Friends’ meeting +is thus set forth by Robert Barclay: “When I came into the +silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among +them, which touched my heart, and as I gave way unto it, I +found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up” (<i>Apology</i>, +xi. 7). In many places Friends have felt the need of bringing +spiritual help to those who are unable to profit by the somewhat +severe discipline of their ordinary manner of worship. To meet +this need they hold (chiefly on Sunday evenings) meetings which +are not professedly “Friends’ meetings for worship,” but which +are services conducted on lines similar to those of other religious +bodies, with, in some cases, a portion of time set apart for silent +worship, and freedom for any one of the congregation to utter +words of exhortation or prayer.</p> + +<p>From the beginning Friends have not practised the outward +ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, even in a non-sacerdotal +spirit. They attach, however, supreme value to the +realities of which the observances are reminders or types—on the +Baptism which is more than putting away the filth of the flesh, +and on the vital union with Christ which is behind any outward +ceremony. Their testimony is not <i>primarily</i> against these +outward observances; their disuse of them is due to a sense +of the danger of substituting the shadow for the reality. They +believe that an experience of more than 250 years gives ample +warrant for the belief that Christ did not command them as a +perpetual outward ordinance; on the contrary, they hold that +it was alien to His method to lay down minute, outward rules +for all time, but that He enunciated principles which His Church +should, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, apply to the +varying needs of the day. Their contention that every event of +life may be turned into a sacrament, a means of grace, is summed +up in the words of Stephen Grellet: “I very much doubt +whether, since the Lord by His grace brought me into the faith +of His dear Son, I have ever broken bread or drunk wine, even +in the ordinary course of life, without the remembrance of, and +some devout feeling regarding, the broken body and the blood-shedding +of my dear Lord and Saviour.”</p> + +<p>When the ministry of any man or woman has been found to +be helpful to the congregation, the Monthly Meeting (see below) +may, after solemn consideration, record the fact that +it believes the individual to have a divine call to the +<span class="sidenote">Ministers.</span> +ministry, and that it encourages him or her to be faithful to the +gift. Such ministers are said to be “acknowledged” or “recorded”; +they are emphatically <i>not</i> appointed to preach, and +the fact of their acknowledgment is not regarded as conferring +any special status upon them. The various Monthly Meetings +appoint Elders, or some body of Friends, to give advice of +encouragement or restraint as may be needed, and, generally, +to take the ministry under their care.</p> + +<p>With regard to the ministry of women, Friends hold that +there is no evidence that the gifts of prophecy and teaching are +confined to one sex. On the contrary, they see that a +<span class="sidenote">Women.</span> +manifest blessing has rested on women’s preaching, +and they regard its almost universal prohibition as a relic of the +seclusion of women which was customary in the countries where +Christianity took its rise. The particular prohibition of Paul +(1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35) they regard as due to the special circumstances +of time and place.</p> + +<p>Friends have always held that war is contrary to the precepts +and spirit of the Gospel, believing that it springs from the lower +impulses of human nature, and not from the seed of divine life +with its infinite capacity of response to the Spirit of God. Their +<span class="sidenote">War.</span> +testimony is not based <i>primarily</i> on any objection to +the use of force in itself, or even on the fact that +war involves suffering and loss of life; their root objection is +based on the fact that war is both the outcome and the cause of +ambition, pride, greed, hatred and everything that is opposed to +the mind of Christ; and that no end to be attained can justify +the use of such means. While not unaware that with this, as +with all moral questions, there may be a certain borderland of +practical difficulty, Friends endeavour to bring all things to the +test of the Realities which, though not seen, are eternal, and +to hold up the ideal, set forth by George Fox, of living in the +virtue of that life and power which takes away the <i>occasion of +war.</i></p> + +<p>Friends have always held that the attempt to enforce truth-speaking +by means of an oath, in courts of law and elsewhere, +tends to create a double standard of truth. They find +Scripture warrant for this belief in Matt. v. 33-37 and +<span class="sidenote">Oaths.</span> +James v. 12. Their testimony in this respect is the better understood +when we bear in mind the large amount of perjury in the +law courts, and profane swearing in general which prevailed +at the time when the Society took its rise. “People swear to +the end that they may speak truth; Christ would have men +speak truth to the end they might not swear” (W. Penn, <i>A +Treatise of Oaths</i>).</p> + +<p>With regard to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, +the belief of the Society of Friends does not essentially differ +from that of other Christian bodies. At the same time +their avoidance of exact definition embodied in a rigid +<span class="sidenote">Theology.</span> +creed, together with their disuse of the outward ordinances of +Baptism and the Supper, has laid them open to considerable +misunderstanding. As will have been seen, they hold an exalted +view of the divinity and work of Christ as the Word become +flesh and the Saviour of the world; but they have always shrunk +from rigid Trinitarian <i>definitions</i>. They believe that the same +Spirit who gave forth the Scriptures still guides men to a right +understanding of them. “You profess the Holy Scriptures: +but what do you witness and experience? What interest have +you in them? Can you set to your seal that they are true by +the work of the same spirit in you that gave them forth in the +holy ancients?” (William Penn, <i>A Summons or Call to Christendom</i>). +At certain periods this doctrine, pushed to an extreme, +has led to a practical undervaluing of the Scriptures, but of late +times it has enabled Friends to face fearlessly the conclusions +of modern criticism, and has contributed to a largely increased +interest in Bible study. During the past few years a new movement +has been started in the shape of lecture schools, lasting for +longer or shorter periods, for the purpose of studying Biblical, +ecclesiastical and social subjects. In 1903 there was established +at Woodbrooke, an estate at Selly Oak on the outskirts of +Birmingham, a permanent settlement for men and women, for +the study of these questions on modern lines. The outward +beginning of this movement was the Manchester Conference of +1895, a turning-point in Quaker history. Speaking generally, +it may be noted that the Society includes various shades of +opinion, from that known as “evangelical,” with a certain +hesitation in receiving modern thought, to the more “advanced” +position which finds greater freedom to consider and adopt new +suggestions of scientific, religious or other thinkers. The +differences, however, are seldom pressed, and rarely become acute. +Apart from points of doctrine which can be more or less definitely +stated (not always with unanimity) Quakerism is an <i>atmosphere</i>, +a manner of life, a method of approaching questions, a habit and +attitude of mind.</p> + +<p><i>Quakerism in Scotland.</i>—Quakerism was preached in Scotland +very soon after its rise in England; but in the north and south +of Scotland there existed, independently of and before this +preaching, groups of persons who were dissatisfied with the +national form of worship and who met together in silence for +devotion. They naturally fell into this Society. In Aberdeen +the Quakers took considerable hold, and were there joined by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>227</span> +some persons of influence and position, especially Alexander +Jaffray, sometime provost of Aberdeen, and Colonel David +Barclay of Ury and his son Robert, the author of the <i>Apology</i>. +Much light has been thrown on the history of the Quakers in +Aberdeenshire by the discovery in 1826 at Ury of a MS. <i>Diary</i> +of Jaffray, since published with elucidations (2nd ed., London, +1836).</p> + +<p><i>Ireland.</i>—The father of Quakerism in Ireland was William +Edmondson; his preaching began in 1653-1654. The <i>History of +the Quakers in Ireland</i> (from 1653 to 1752), by Wight and Rutty, +may be consulted. Dublin Yearly Meeting, constituted in 1670, +is independent of London Yearly Meeting (see below).</p> + +<p><i>America.</i>—In July 1656 two women Quakers, Mary Fisher and +Ann Austin, arrived at Boston. Under the general law against +heresy their books were burnt by the hangman, they were +searched for signs of witchcraft, they were imprisoned for five +weeks and then sent away. During the same year eight others +were sent back to England.</p> + +<p>In 1656, 1657 and 1658 laws were passed to prevent the introduction +of Quakers into Massachusetts, and it was enacted +that on the first conviction one ear should be cut off, on the +second the remaining ear, and that on the third conviction the +tongue should be bored with a hot iron. Fines were laid upon +all who entertained these people or were present at their meetings. +Thereupon the Quakers, who were perhaps not without the +obstinacy of which Marcus Aurelius complained in the early +Christians, rushed to Massachusetts as if invited, and the result +was that the general court of the colony banished them on pain of +death, and four of them, three men and one woman, were hanged +for refusing to depart from the jurisdiction or for obstinately +returning within it. That the Quakers were, at times, irritating +cannot be denied: some of them appear to have publicly +mocked the institutions and the rulers of the colony and to have +interrupted public worship; and a few of their men and women +acted with the fanaticism and disorder which frequently characterized +the religious controversies of the time. The particulars +of the proceedings of Governor Endecott and the magistrates of +New England as given in Besse’s <i>Sufferings of the Quakers</i> (see +below) are startling to read. On the Restoration of Charles II. +a memorial was presented to him by the Quakers in England +stating the persecutions which their fellow-members had undergone +in New England. Even the careless Charles was moved +to issue an order to the colony which effectually stopped the +hanging of the Quakers for their religion, though it by no means +put an end to the persecution of the body in New England.</p> + +<p>It is not wonderful that the Quakers, persecuted and oppressed +at home and in New England, should turn their eyes to the +unoccupied parts of America, and cherish the hope of founding, +amidst their woods, some refuge from oppression, and some +likeness of a city of God upon earth. As early as 1660 George +Fox was considering the question of buying land from the +Indians. In 1671-1673 he had visited the American plantations +from Carolina to Rhode Island and had preached alike to Indians +and to settlers; in 1674 a portion of New Jersey (<i>q.v.</i>) was sold +by Lord Berkeley to John Fenwicke in trust for Edward Byllynge. +Both these men were Quakers, and in 1675 Fenwicke with a large +company of his co-religionists crossed the Atlantic, sailed up +Delaware Bay, and landed at a fertile spot which he called +Salem. Byllynge, having become embarrassed in his circumstances, +placed his interest in the land in the hands of Penn and +others as trustees for his creditors; they invited buyers, and +companies of Quakers in Yorkshire and London were amongst +the largest purchasers. In 1677-1678 five vessels with eight +hundred emigrants, chiefly Quakers, arrived in the colony (then +separated from the rest of New Jersey, under the name of West +New Jersey), and the town of Burlington was established. In +1677 the fundamental laws of West New Jersey were published, +and recognized in a most absolute form the principles of democratic +equality and perfect freedom of conscience. Notwithstanding +certain troubles from claims of the governor of New +York and of the duke of York, the colony prospered, and in 1681 +the first legislative assembly of the colony, consisting mainly of +Quakers, was held. They agreed to raise an annual sum of £200 +for the expenses of their commonwealth; they assigned their governor +a salary of £20; they prohibited the sale of ardent spirits +to the Indians and imprisonment for debt. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">New Jersey</a></span>.)</p> + +<p>But beyond question the most interesting event in connexion +with Quakerism in America is the foundation by William Penn +(<i>q.v.</i>) of the colony of Pennsylvania, where he hoped +to carry into effect the principles of his sect—to found +<span class="sidenote">William Penn.</span> +and govern a colony without armies or military +power, to reduce the Indians by justice and kindness to civilization +and Christianity, to administer justice without oaths, and +to extend an equal toleration to all persons who professed a +belief in God. The history of this is part of the history of America +and of Pennsylvania (<i>q.v.</i>) in particular. The chief point of +interest in the history of Friends in America during the 18th +century is their effort to clear themselves of complicity in +slavery and the slave trade. As early as 1671 George Fox when +in Barbados counselled kind treatment of slaves and ultimate +liberation of them. William Penn provided for the freedom +of slaves after fourteen years’ service. In 1688 the German +Friends of Germantown, Philadelphia, raised the first official +protest uttered by any religious body against slavery. In 1711 +a law was passed in Pennsylvania prohibiting the importation +of slaves, but it was rejected by the Council in England. The +prominent anti-slavery workers were Ralph Sandiford, Benjamin +Lay, Anthony Benezet and John Woolman.<a name="fa3d" id="fa3d" href="#ft3d"><span class="sp">3</span></a> By the end of +the 18th century slavery was practically extinct among Friends, +and the Society as a whole laboured for its abolition, which came +about in 1865, the poet Whittier being one of the chief writers +and workers in the cause. From early times up to the present +day Friends have laboured for the welfare of the North American +Indians. The history of the 19th century is largely one of +division. Elias Hicks (<i>q.v.</i>), of Long Island, N.Y., propounded +doctrines inconsistent with the orthodox views concerning +Christ and the Scriptures, and a separation resulted in 1827-1828 +(see above). His followers are known as “Hicksites,” +a name not officially used by themselves, and only assented to +for purposes of description under some protest. They have +their own organization, being divided into seven yearly meetings +numbering about 20,000 members, but these meetings form no +part of the official organization which links London Yearly +Meeting with other bodies of Friends on the American continent. +This separation led to strong insistence on “evangelical” views +(in the usual sense of the term) concerning Christ, the Atonement, +imputed righteousness, the Scriptures, &c. This showed itself +in the Beaconite controversy in England (see above), and in a +further division in America. John Wilbur, a minister of New +England, headed a party of protest against the new evangelicalism, +laying extreme stress on the “Inward Light”; the result +was a further separation of “Wilburites” or “the smaller +body,” who, like the “Hicksites,” have a separate independent +organization of their own. In 1907 they were divided into seven +yearly meetings (together with some smaller independent +bodies, the result of extreme emphasis laid on individualism), +with a membership of about 5000. Broadly speaking, the +“smaller body” is characterized by a rigid adherence to old +forms of dress and speech, to a disapproval of music and art, +and to an insistence on the “Inward Light” which, at times, +leaves but little room for the Scriptures or the historic Christ, +although with no definite or intended repudiation of them. +In 1908 the number of “orthodox” yearly meetings in America, +including one in Canada, was fifteen, with a total membership +of about 100,000. They have, for the most part, adopted, to a +greater or less degree, the “pastoral system,” <i>i.e.</i> the appointment +of one man or woman in each congregation to “conduct” +the meeting for worship and to carry on pastoral work. In most +cases the pastor receives a salary. A few of them demand from +their ministers definite subscription to a specific body of doctrine, +mostly of the ordinary “evangelical” type. In the matters of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>228</span> +organization, disuse of the outward ordinances (this point is +subject to some slight exception, principally in Ohio), and women’s +ministry, they do not differ from English Friends. The yearly +meetings of Baltimore and Philadelphia have not adopted the +pastoral system; the latter contains a very strong conservative +element, and, contrary to the practice of London and the other +“orthodox” yearly meetings, it officially regards the meetings +of “the smaller body” (see above) as meetings of the Society +of Friends. In 1902 the “orthodox” yearly meetings in the +United States established a “Five Years’ Meeting,” a representative +body meeting once every five years to consider matters +affecting the welfare of all, and to further such philanthropic +and religious work as may be undertaken in common, <i>e.g.</i> +matters concerning foreign missions, temperance and peace, and +the welfare of negroes and Indians. Two yearly meetings remain +outside the organization, that of Ohio on ultra-evangelical +grounds, while that of Philadelphia has not taken the matter into +consideration. Canada joined at the first, and having withdrawn, +again joined in 1907.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See James Bowden, <i>History of the Society of Friends in America</i> +(1850-1854); Allan C. and Richard H. Thomas, <i>The History of +Friends in America</i> (4th edition, 1905); Isaac Sharpless, <i>History of +Quaker Government in Pennsylvania</i> (1898, 1899); R. P. Hallowell, +<i>The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts</i> (1887), and <i>The Pioneer +Quakers</i> (1887).</p> +</div> + +<p><i>Organization and Discipline.</i>—The duty of watching over one +another for good was insisted on by the early Friends, and has +been embodied in a system of discipline. Its objects embrace +(<i>a</i>) admonition to those who fail in the payment of their just +debts, or otherwise walk contrary to the standard of Quaker +ethics, and the exclusion of obstinate or gross offenders from +the body, and, as incident to this, the hearing of appeals from +individuals or meetings considering themselves aggrieved; +(<i>b</i>) the care and maintenance of the poor and provision for the +Christian education of their children, for which purpose the +Society has established boarding schools in different parts of the +country; (<i>c</i>) the amicable settlement of “all differences about +outward things,” either by the parties in controversy or by the +submission of the dispute to arbitration, and the restraint of all +proceedings at law between members except by leave; (<i>d</i>) the +“recording” of ministers (see above); (<i>e</i>) the cognizance of all +steps preceding marriage according to Quaker forms; (<i>f</i>) the +registration of births, deaths and marriages and the admission +of members; (<i>g</i>) the issuing of certificates or letters of approval +granted to ministers travelling away from their homes, or to +members removing from one meeting to another; and (<i>h</i>) the +management of the property belonging to the Society. The +meetings for business further concern themselves with arrangements +for spreading the Quaker doctrine, and for carrying out +various religious, philanthropic and social activities not necessarily +confined to the Society of Friends.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The present organization of the Quaker church is essentially +democratic; every person born of Quaker parents is a member, and, +together with those who have been admitted on their own +request, is entitled to take part in the business assemblies +<span class="sidenote">Periodic “meetings.”</span> +of any meeting of which he or she is a member. The +Society is organized as a series of subordinated meetings +which recall to the mind the Presbyterian model. The “Preparative +Meeting” usually consists of a single congregation; next in order +comes the “Monthly Meeting,” the executive body, usually embracing +several Preparative Meetings called together, as its name indicates, +monthly (in some cases less often); then the “Quarterly +Meeting,” embracing several Monthly Meetings; and lastly the +“Yearly Meeting,” embracing the whole of Great Britain (but not +Ireland). After several yearly or “general” meetings had been held +in different places at irregular intervals as need arose, the first of an +uninterrupted series met in 1668. From that date until 1904 it was +held in London. In 1905 it met in Leeds, and in 1908 in Birmingham. +Its official title is “London Yearly Meeting.” It is the legislative +body of Friends in Great Britain. It considers questions of policy, +and some of its sittings are conferences for the consideration of +reports on religious, philanthropic, educational and social work +which is carried on. Its sessions occupy a week in May of each year. +Representatives are sent from each inferior to each superior meeting, +but they have no precedence over others, and all Friends may +attend any meeting and take part in any of which they are members. +Formerly the system was double, the men and women meeting +separately for their own appointed business. Of late years the +meetings have been, for the most part, held jointly, with equal +liberty for all men and women to state their opinions, and to serve +on all committees and other appointments. The mode of conducting +these meetings is noteworthy. A secretary or “clerk,” as he is +called, acts as chairman or president; there are no formal resolutions; +and there is no voting or applause. The clerk ascertains +what he considers to be the judgment of the assembly, and records +it in a minute. The permanent standing committee of the Society +is known as the “Meeting for Sufferings” (established in 1675), +which took its rise in the days when the persecution of many Friends +demanded the Christian care and material help of those who were +able to give it. It is composed of representatives (men and women) +sent by the quarterly meetings, and of all recorded Ministers and +Elders. Its work is not confined to the interests of Friends; it is +sensitive to the call of oppression and distress (<i>e.g.</i> a famine) in all +parts of the world, it frequently raises large sums of money to +alleviate the same, and intervenes, often successfully, and mostly +without publicity, with those in authority who have the power to +bring about an amelioration.</p> + +<p>The offices known to the Quaker body are: (1) that of <i>minister</i> +(the term “office” is not strictly applicable, see above as to “recording”); +(2) of <i>elder</i>, whose duty it is “to encourage and help young +ministers, and advise others as they, in the wisdom of God, see +occasion”; (3) of <i>overseer</i>, to whom is especially entrusted that +duty of Christian care for and interest in one another which Quakers +recognize as obligatory in all the members of a church. In most +Monthly Meetings the care of the poor is committed to the overseers. +These officers hold, from time to time, meetings separate from the +general assemblies of the members, but the special organization for +many years known as the Meeting of Ministers and Elders, reconstituted +in 1876 as the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, came to +an end in 1906-1907.</p> + +<p>This present form both of organization and of discipline has been +reached only by a process of development. As early as 1652-1654 +there is evidence of some slight organization for dealing with +marriages, poor relief, “disorderly walkers,” matters of arbitration, +&c. The Quarterly or “General” meetings of the different counties +seem to have been the first unions of separate congregations. In +1666 Fox established Monthly Meetings; in 1727 elders were first +appointed; in 1752 overseers were added; and in 1737 the right +of children of Quakers to be considered as members was fully +recognized. Concerning the 18th century in general, see above.</p> + +<p>Of late years the stringency of the Quaker discipline has been +relaxed: the peculiarities of dress and language have been +abandoned; marriage with a non-member or between two non-members +is now possible at a Quaker meeting-house; and marriage +elsewhere has ceased to involve exclusion from the body. Above +all, many of its members have come to “the conviction, which is +not new, but old, that the virtues which can be rewarded and the +vices which can be punished by external discipline are not as a rule +the virtues and the vices that make or mar the soul” (Hatch, +<i>Bampton Lectures</i>, 81).</p> + +<p>A genuine vein of philanthropy has always existed in the Quaker +body. In nothing has this been more conspicuous than in the +matter of slavery. George Fox and William Penn +laboured to secure the religious teaching of slaves. As +<span class="sidenote">Philanthropic interests.</span> +early as 1676 the assembly of Barbados passed “An Act +to prevent the people called Quakers from bringing +negroes to their meetings.” On the attitude of Friends in America +to slavery, see the section “Quakerism in America” (above). In +1783 the first petition to the House of Commons for the abolition +of the slave trade and slavery went up from the Quakers; and in the +long agitation which ensued the Society took a prominent part.</p> + +<p>In 1798 Joseph Lancaster, himself a Friend, opened his first school +for the education of the poor; and the cause of unsectarian religious +education found in the Quakers steady support. They also took an +active part in Sir Samuel Romilly’s efforts to ameliorate the penal +code, in prison reform, with which the name of Elizabeth Fry (a +Friend) is especially connected, and in the efforts to ameliorate the +condition of lunatics in England (the Friends’ Retreat at York, +founded in 1792, was the earliest example in England of kindly +treatment of the insane). It is noteworthy that Quaker efforts for +the education of the poor and philanthropy in general, though they +have always been Christian in character, have not been undertaken +primarily for the purpose of bringing proselytes within the body, +and have not done so to any great extent.</p> + +<p>By means of the Adult Schools, Friends have been able to exercise +a religious influence beyond the borders of their own Society. The +movement began in Birmingham in 1845, in an attempt +to help the loungers at street corners; reading and +<span class="sidenote">Education.</span> +writing were the chief inducements offered. The schools +are unsectarian in character and mainly democratic in government: +the aim is to draw out what is best in men and to induce them to act +for the help of their fellows. Whilst the work is essentially religious +in character, a well-equipped school also caters for the social, +intellectual and physical parts of a man’s nature. Bible teaching is +the central part of the school session: the lessons are mainly concerned +with life’s practical problems. The spirit of brotherliness +which prevails is largely the secret of the success of the movement. +At the end of 1909 there were in connexion with the “National +Council of Adult-School Associations” 1818 “schools” for men with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>229</span> +a membership of about 113,789; and 402 for women with a membership +of about 27,000. The movement, which is no longer exclusively +under the control of Friends, is rapidly becoming one of the chief +means of bringing about a religious fellowship among a class which +the organized churches have largely failed to reach. The effect of +the work upon the Society itself may be summarized thus: some +addition to membership; the creation of a sphere of usefulness for +the younger and more active members; a general stirring of interest +in social questions.<a name="fa4d" id="fa4d" href="#ft4d"><span class="sp">4</span></a></p> + +<p>A strong interest in Sunday schools for children preceded the +Adult School movement. The earliest schools which are still +existing were formed at Bristol, for boys in 1810 and for girls in the +following year. Several isolated efforts were made earlier than this; +it is evident that there was a school at Lothersdale near Skipton +in 1800 “for the preservation of the youth of both sexes, and for +their instruction in useful learning”; and another at Nottingham. +Even earlier still were the Sunday and day schools in Rossendale, +Lancashire, dating from 1793. At the end of 1909 there were in +connexion with the Friends’ First-Day School Association 240 +schools with 2722 teachers and 25,215 scholars, very few of whom +were the children of Friends. Not included in these figures are +classes for children of members and “attenders,” which are usually +held before or during a portion of the time of the morning meeting +for worship; in these distinctly denominational teaching is given. +Monthly organ, <i>Teachers and Taught</i>.</p> + +<p>A “provisional committee” of members of the Society of Friends +was formed in 1865 to deal with offers of service in foreign lands. +In 1868 this developed into the Friends’ Foreign Mission +Association, which now undertakes Missionary work in +<span class="sidenote">Foreign missions.</span> +India (begun 1866), Madagascar (1867), Syria (1869), +China (1886), Ceylon (1896). In 1909 the number of missionaries +(including wives) was 113; organized churches, 194; members and +adherents, 21,085; schools, 135; pupils, 7042; hospitals and +dispensaries, 17; patients treated, 6865; subscriptions raised from +Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, £26,689, besides £3245 received +in the fields of work. Quarterly organ, <i>Our Missions</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Statistics of Quakerism.</i>—At the close of 1909 there were 18,686 +Quakers (the number includes children) in Great Britain; and +“associates” and habitual “attenders” not in membership, 8586; +number of congregations regularly meeting, 390. Ireland—members, +2528; habitual attenders not in membership, 402.</p> + +<p>The central offices and reference library of the Society of Friends +are situate at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate Without, London.</p> + +<p><i>Bibliography.</i>—The writings of the early Friends are very numerous: +the most noteworthy are the <i>Journals</i> of George Fox and of +Thomas Ellwood, both autobiographies, the <i>Apology</i> and other +works of Robert Barclay, and the works of Penn and Penington. +Early in the 18th century William Sewel, a Dutch Quaker, wrote a +history of the Society and published an English translation; modern +(small) histories have been written by T. Edmund Harvey (<i>The +Rise of the Quakers</i>) and by Mrs Emmott (<i>The Story of Quakerism</i>). +<i>The Sufferings of the Quakers</i> by Joseph Besse (1753) gives a detailed +account of the persecution of the early Friends in England and +America. An excellent portraiture of early Quakerism is given in +William Tanner’s <i>Lectures on Friends in Bristol and Somersetshire</i>. +<i>The Book of Discipline</i> in its successive printed editions from 1783 +to 1906 contains the working rules of the organization, and also a +compilation of testimonies borne by the Society at different periods, +to important points of Christian truth, and often called forth by the +special circumstances of the time. <i>The Inner Life of the Religious +Societies of the Commonwealth</i> (London, 1876) by Robert Barclay, +a descendant of the Apologist, contains much curious information +about the Quakers. See also “Quaker” in the index to Masson’s +<i>Life of Milton</i>. Joseph Smith’s <i>Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ +Books</i> (London, 1867) gives the information which its title promises; +the same author has also published a catalogue of works hostile to +Quakerism. For an exposition of Quakerism on its spiritual side +many of the poems by Whittier may be referred to, also <i>Quaker +Strongholds</i> and <i>Light Arising</i> by Caroline E. Stephen; <i>The Society of +Friends, its Faith and Practice</i>, and other works by John Stephenson +Rowntree, <i>A Dynamic Faith</i> and other works by Rufus M. Jones; +<i>Authority and the Light Within</i> and other works by Edw. Grubb, +and the series of “Swarthmore Lectures” as well as the histories +above mentioned. Much valuable information will be found in <i>John +Stephenson Rowntree: His Life and Work</i> (1908). The history of the +modern forward movement may be studied in <i>Essays and Addresses</i> +by John Wilhelm Rowntree, and in <i>Present Day Papers</i> edited by him. +The social life of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th is +portrayed in <i>Records of a Quaker Family, the Richardsons of Cleveland</i>, +by Mrs Boyce, and <i>The Diaries of Edward Pease, the Father of English +Railways</i>, edited by Sir A. E. Pease. Other works which may usefully +be consulted are the Journals of John Woolman, Stephen Grellet and +Elizabeth Fry; also <i>The First Publishers of Truth</i>, a reprint of contemporary +accounts of the rise of Quakerism in various districts. +The periodicals issued (not officially) in connexion with the Quaker +body are <i>The Friend</i> (weekly), <i>The British Friend</i> (monthly), <i>The +Friends’ Witness</i>, <i>The Friendly Messenger</i>, <i>The Friends’ Fellowship +Papers</i>, <i>The Friends’ Quarterly Examiner</i>, <i>Journal of the Friends’ +Historical Society</i>. Officially issued: <i>The Book of Meetings</i> and <i>The +Friends’ Year Book</i>. See also works mentioned at the close of +sections on Adult Schools and on Quakerism in America, Scotland +and Ireland, and elsewhere in this article; also <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Fox, George</a></span>.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(A. N. B.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1d" id="ft1d" href="#fa1d"><span class="fn">1</span></a> At the time referred to, and during the Commonwealth, the +pulpits of the cathedrals and churches were occupied by Episcopalians +of the Richard Baxter type, Presbyterians, Independents and a few +Baptists. It is these, and not the clergy of the Church of England, +who are continually referred to by George Fox as “priests.”</p> + +<p><a name="ft2d" id="ft2d" href="#fa2d"><span class="fn">2</span></a> On the whole subject of preaching “after the priest had done,” +see Barclay’s <i>Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth</i>, +ch. xii.</p> + +<p><a name="ft3d" id="ft3d" href="#fa3d"><span class="fn">3</span></a> Woolman’s <i>Journal</i> and <i>Works</i> are remarkable. He had a +vision of a political economy based not on selfishness but on love, +not on desire but on self-denial.</p> + +<p><a name="ft4d" id="ft4d" href="#fa4d"><span class="fn">4</span></a> See <i>A History of the Adult School Movement</i> by J. W. Rowntree +and H. B. Binns. The organ of the movement is One and All, +published monthly. See also <i>The Adult School Year Book</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIES, ELIAS MAGNUS<a name="ar52" id="ar52"></a></span> (1794-1878), Swedish botanist, +was born at Femsjö, Småland, on the 15th of August 1794. +From his father, the pastor of the church at Femsjö, he early +acquired an extensive knowledge of flowering plants. In 1811 +he entered the university of Lund, where in 1814 he was elected +docent of botany and in 1824 professor. In 1834 he became +professor of practical economy at Upsala, and in 1844 and 1848 +he represented the university of that city in the Rigsdag. On +the death of Göran Wahlenberg (1780-1851) he was appointed +professor of botany at Upsala, where he died on the 8th of +February 1878. Fries was admitted a member of the Swedish +Royal Academy in 1847, and a foreign member of the Royal +Society of London in 1875.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>As an author on the Cryptogamia he was in the first rank. He +wrote <i>Novitiae florae Suecicae</i> (1814 and 1823); <i>Observationes +mycologicae</i> (1815); <i>Flora Hollandica</i> (1817-1818); <i>Systema mycologicum</i> +(1821-1829); <i>Systema orbis vegetabilis</i>, not completed +(1825); <i>Elenchus fungorum</i> (1828); <i>Lichenographia Europaea</i> +(1831); <i>Epicrisis systematis mycologici</i> (1838; 2nd ed., or <i>Hymenomycetes +Europaei</i>, 1874); <i>Summa vegetabilium Scandinaviae</i> (1846); +<i>Sveriges ätliga och giftiga Svampar</i>, with coloured plates (1860); +<i>Monographia hymenomycetum Suecicae</i> (1863), with the <i>Icones +hymenomycetum</i>, vol. i. (1867), and pt. i. vol. ii. (1877).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH<a name="ar53" id="ar53"></a></span> (1773-1843), German philosopher, +was born at Barby, Saxony, on the 23rd of August 1773. Having +studied theology in the academy of the Moravian brethren at +Niesky, and philosophy at Leipzig and Jena, he travelled for +some time, and in 1806 became professor of philosophy and +elementary mathematics at Heidelberg. Though the progress +of his psychological thought compelled him to abandon the +positive theology of the Moravians, he always retained an +appreciation of its spiritual or symbolic significance. His philosophical +position with regard to his contemporaries he had +already made clear in the critical work <i>Reinhold, Fichte und +Schelling</i> (1803; reprinted in 1824 as <i>Polemische Schriften</i>), +and in the more systematic treatises <i>System der Philosophie als +evidente Wissenschaft</i> (1804), <i>Wissen, Glaube und Ahnung</i> (1805, +new ed. 1905). His most important treatise, the <i>Neue oder +anthropologische Kritik der Vernunft</i> (2nd ed., 1828-1831), was +an attempt to give a new foundation of psychological analysis +to the critical theory of Kant. In 1811 appeared his <i>System +der Logik</i> (ed. 1819 and 1837), a very instructive work, and in +1814 <i>Julius und Evagoras</i>, a philosophical romance. In 1816 +he was invited to Jena to fill the chair of theoretical philosophy +(including mathematics and physics, and philosophy proper), +and entered upon a crusade against the prevailing Romanticism. +In politics he was a strong Liberal and Unionist, and did much +to inspire the organization of the <i>Burschenschaft</i>. In 1816 he +had published his views in a brochure, <i>Vom deutschen Bund +und deutscher Staatsverfassung</i>, dedicated to “the youth of +Germany,” and his influence gave a powerful impetus to the +agitation which led in 1819 to the issue of the Carlsbad Decrees +by the representatives of the German governments. Karl Sand, +the murderer of Kotzebue, was one of his pupils; and a letter +of his, found on another student, warning the lad against participation +in secret societies, was twisted by the suspicious +authorities into evidence of his guilt. He was condemned by the +Mainz Commission; the grand-duke of Weimar was compelled +to deprive him of his professorship; and he was forbidden to +lecture on philosophy. The grand-duke, however, continued +to pay him his stipend, and in 1824 he was recalled to Jena +as professor of mathematics and physics, receiving permission +also to lecture on philosophy in his own rooms to a select number +of students. Finally, in 1838, the unrestricted right of lecturing +was restored to him. He died on the 10th of August 1843.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The most important of the many works written during his Jena +professorate are the <i>Handbuch der praktischen Philosophie</i> (1817-1832), +the <i>Handbuch der psychischen Anthropologie</i> (1820-1821, +2nd ed. 1837-1839), <i>Die mathematische Naturphilosophie</i> (1822), +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>230</span> +<i>System der Metaphysik</i> (1824), <i>Die Geschichte der Philosophie</i> (1837-1840). +Fries’s point of view in philosophy may be described as a +modified Kantianism, an attempt to reconcile the criticism of Kant +and Jacobi’s philosophy of belief. With Kant he regarded <i>Kritik</i>, +or the critical investigation of the faculty of knowledge, as the +essential preliminary to philosophy. But he differed from Kant +both as regards the foundation for this criticism and as regards the +metaphysical results yielded by it. Kant’s analysis of knowledge +had disclosed the a priori element as the necessary complement of +the isolated a posteriori facts of experience. But it did not seem to +Fries that Kant had with sufficient accuracy examined the mode in +which we arrive at knowledge of this a priori element. According +to him we only know these a priori principles through inner or +psychical experience; they are not then to be regarded as transcendental +factors of all experience, but as the necessary, constant +elements discovered by us in our inner experience. Accordingly +Fries, like the Scotch school, places psychology or analysis of consciousness +at the foundation of philosophy, and called his criticism +of knowledge an anthropological critique. A second point in which +Fries differed from Kant is the view taken as to the relation between +immediate and mediate cognitions. According to Fries, the understanding +is purely the faculty of proof; it is in itself void; immediate +certitude is the only source of knowledge. Reason contains principles +which we cannot demonstrate, but which can be deduced, and are +the proper objects of belief. In this view of reason Fries approximates +to Jacobi rather than to Kant. His most original idea is the +graduation of knowledge into knowing, belief and presentiment. +We know phenomena, how the existence of things appears to us in +nature; we believe in the true nature, the eternal essence of things +(the good, the true, the beautiful); by means of presentiment +(<i>Ahnung</i>) the intermediary between knowledge and belief, we +recognize the supra-sensible in the sensible, the being in the phenomenon.</p> + +<p>See E. L. Henke, <i>J. F. Fries</i> (1867); C. Grapengiesser, <i>J. F. Fries, +ein Gedenkblatt</i> and <i>Kant’s “Kritik der Vernunft” und deren Fortbildung +durch J. F. Fries</i> (1882); H. Strasosky, <i>J. F. Fries als +Kritiker der Kantischen Erkenntnistheorie</i> (1891); articles in Ersch +and Gruber’s <i>Allgemeine Encyklopädie</i> and <i>Allgemeine deutsche +Biographie</i>; J. E. Erdmann, <i>Hist. of Philos.</i> (Eng. trans., London, +1890), vol. ii. § 305.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIES, JOHN<a name="ar54" id="ar54"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> 1764-1825), American insurgent leader, was +born in Pennsylvania of “Dutch” (German) descent about +1764. As an itinerant auctioneer he became well acquainted +with the Germans in the S.E. part of Pennsylvania. In July +1798, during the troubles between the United States and France, +Congress levied a direct tax (on dwelling-houses, lands and +slaves) of $2,000,000, of which Pennsylvania was called upon to +contribute $237,000. There were very few slaves in the state, +and the tax was accordingly assessed upon dwelling-houses and +land, the value of the houses being determined by the number +and size of the windows. The inquisitorial nature of the proceedings +aroused strong opposition among the Germans, and +many of them refused to pay. Fries, assuming leadership, +organized an armed band of about sixty men, who marched +about the country intimidating the assessors and encouraging +the people to resist. At last the governor called out the +militia (March 1799) and the leaders were arrested. Fries and +two others were twice tried for treason (the second time before +Samuel Chase) and were sentenced to be hanged, but they were +pardoned by President Adams in April 1800, and a general +amnesty was issued on 21st May. The affair is variously known +as the “Fries Rebellion,” the “Hot-Water Rebellion”—because +hot water was used to drive assessors from houses—, and the +“Home Tax Rebellion.” Fries died in Philadelphia in 1825.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See T. Carpenter, <i>Two Trials of John Fries ... Taken in Shorthand</i> +(Philadelphia, 1800); the second volume of McMaster’s <i>History +of the United States</i> (New York, 1883); and W. W. H. Davis, <i>The +Fries Rebellion</i> (Doylestown, Pa., 1899).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIESLAND,<a name="ar55" id="ar55"></a></span> or <span class="sc">Vriesland</span>, a province of Holland, bounded +S.W., W. and N. by the Zuider Zee and the North Sea, E. by +Groningen and Drente, and S.E. by Overysel. It also includes +the islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Frisian +Islands</a></span>). Area, 1281 sq. m.; pop. (1900) 340,262. The soil +of Friesland falls naturally into three divisions consisting of +sea-clay in the north and north-west, of low-fen between the +south-west and north-east, and of a comparatively small area +of high-fen in the south-east. The clay and low-fen furnish a +luxuriant meadow-land for the principal industries of the province—cattle-rearing +and cheese- and butter-making. Horse-breeding +has also been practised for centuries, and the breed of black +Frisian horse is well known. On the clay lands agriculture is +also extensively practised. In the high-fen district peat-digging +is the chief occupation. The effect of this industry, however, +is to lay bare a subsoil of diluvial sand which offers little inducement +for subsequent cultivation. Despite the general productiveness +of the soil, however, the social condition of Friesland has +remained in a backward state and poverty is rife in many districts. +The ownership of property being largely in the hands of absentee +landlords, the peasantry have little interest in the land, the +profits from which go to enrich other provinces. Moreover, +the nature of the fertility of the meadow-lands is such as to +require little manual labour, and other industrial means of +subsistence have hardly yet come into existence. This state of +affairs has given rise to a social-democratic outcry on account +of which Friesland is sometimes regarded as the “Ireland of +Holland.” The water system of the province comprises a few +small rivers (now largely canalized) in the high lands in the east, +and the vast network of canals, waterways and lakes of the whole +north and west. The principal lakes are Tjeuke Meer, Sloter +Meer, De Fluessen and Sneeker Meer. The tides being lowest +on the north coast of the province, the scheme of the Waterstaat, +the government department (dating from 1879), provides for +the largest removal of superfluous surface water into the Lauwerszee. +But owing to the long distance which the water must +travel from certain parts of the province, and the continual +recession of the Lauwerszee, the drainage problem is a peculiarly +difficult one, and floods are sometimes inevitable.</p> + +<p>The population of the province is evenly distributed in small +villages. The principal market centres are Leeuwarden, the +chief towns, Sneek, Bolsward, Franeker (<i>qq.v.</i>), Dokkum (4053) +and Heerenveen (5011). With the exception of Franeker and +Heerenveen all these towns originally arose on the inlet of the +Middle Sea. The seaport towns are more or less decayed; +they include Stavoren (820), Hindeloopen (1030), Workum +(3428), Harlingen (<i>q.v.</i>) and Makkum (2456).</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>For history see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Frisians</a></span>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIEZE.<a name="ar56" id="ar56"></a></span> 1. (Through the Fr. <i>frise</i>, and Ital. <i>fregio</i>, from +the Lat. <i>Phrygium, sc. opus</i>, Phrygian or embroidered work), +a term given in architecture to the central division of the entablature +of an order (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Order</a></span>), but also applied to any oblong +horizontal feature, introduced for decorative purposes and +enriched with carving. The Doric frieze had a structural origin +as the triglyphs suggest vertical support. The Ionic frieze was +purely decorative and probably did not exist in the earliest +examples, if we may judge by the copies found in the Lycian +tombs carved in the rock. There is no frieze in the Caryatide +portico of the Erechtheum, but in the Ionic temples its introduction +may have been necessitated in consequence of more height +being required in the entablature to carry the beams supporting +the lacunaria over the peristyle. In the frieze of the Erechtheum +the figures (about 2 ft. high) were carved in white marble and +affixed by clamps to a background of black Eleusinian marble. +The frieze of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates (10 in. high) +was carved with figures representing the story of Dionysus and +the pirates. The most remarkable frieze ever sculptured was +that on the outside of the wall of the cella of the Parthenon +representing the procession of the celebrants of the Panathenaic +Festival. It was 40 in. in height and 525 ft. long, being carried +round the whole building under the peristyle. Nearly the whole +of the western frieze exists <i>in situ</i>; of the remainder, about half +is in the British Museum, and as much as remains is either in +Athens or in other museums. In some of the Roman temples, +as in the temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the temple +of the Sun, the frieze is elaborately carved and in later work is +made convex, to which the term “pulvinated” is given.</p> + +<p>2. (Probably connected with “frizz,” to curl; there is no +historical reason to connect the word with Friesland), a thick, +rough woollen cloth, of very lasting quality, and with a heavy +nap, forming small tufts or curls. It is largely manufactured in +Ireland.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIGATE<a name="ar57" id="ar57"></a></span> (Fr. <i>frégate</i>, Span. and Port. <i>fragata</i>; the etymology +of the word is obscure; it has been derived from the Late Lat. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>231</span> +<i>fabricata</i>, and the use of the Fr. <i>bâtiment</i>, for a vessel as well as a +building is compared; another suggestion derives the word from +the Gr. <span class="grk" title="aphraktos">ἄφρακτος</span>, unfenced or unguarded), originally a small +swift, undecked vessel, propelled by oars or sails, in use on the +Mediterranean. The word is thus used of the large open boats, +without guns, used for war purposes by the Portuguese in the +East Indies during the 16th and 17th centuries. The French +first applied the term to a particular type of ships of war during +the second quarter of the 18th century. The Seven Years’ +War (1756-1763) marked the definite adoption of the “frigate” +as a standard class of vessel, coming next to ships of the line, +and used for cruising and scouting purposes. They were three-masted, +fully rigged, fast vessels, with the main armament +carried on a single deck, and additional guns on the poop and +forecastle. The number of guns varied from 24 to 50, but +between 30 and 40 guns was the usual amount carried. “Frigate” +continued to be used as the name for this type of ship, even +after the introduction of steam and of ironclad vessels, but the +class is now represented by that known as “cruiser.”</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIGATE-BIRD,<a name="ar58" id="ar58"></a></span> the name commonly given by English +sailors, on account of the swiftness of its flight, its habit of +cruising about near other species and of daringly pursuing them, +to a large sea-bird<a name="fa1e" id="fa1e" href="#ft1e"><span class="sp">1</span></a>—the <i>Fregata aquila</i> of most ornithologists—the +<i>Fregatte</i> of French and the <i>Rabihorcado</i> of Spanish mariners. +It was placed by Linnaeus in the genus <i>Pelecanus</i>, and its +assignment to the family <i>Pelecanidae</i> had hardly ever been +doubted till Professor St George Mivart declared (<i>Trans. Zool. +Soc.</i> x. p. 364) that, as regards the postcranial part of its axial +skeleton, he could not detect sufficiently good characters to +unite it with that family in the group named by Professor J. F. +Brandt <i>Steganopodes</i>. There seems to be no ground for disputing +this decision so far as separating the genus <i>Fregata</i> from the +<i>Pelecanidae</i> goes, but systematists will probably pause before +they proceed to abolish the <i>Steganopodes</i>, and the result will +most likely be that the frigate-birds will be considered to form +a distinct family (<i>Fregatidae</i>) in that group. In one very remarkable +way the osteology of <i>Fregata</i> differs from that of all other +birds known. The furcula coalesces firmly at its symphysis +with the carina of the sternum, and also with the coracoids at +the upper extremity of each of its rami, the anterior end of each +coracoid coalescing also with the proximal end of the scapula. +Thus the only articulations in the whole sternal apparatus are +where the coracoids meet the sternum, and the consequence is +a bony framework which would be perfectly rigid did not the +flexibility of the rami of the furcula permit a limited amount of +motion. That this mechanism is closely related to the faculty +which the bird possesses of soaring for a considerable time in the +air with scarcely a perceptible movement of the wings can +hardly be doubted.</p> + +<p>Two species of <i>Fregata</i> are considered to exist, though they +differ in little but size and geographical distribution. The larger, +<i>F. aquila</i>, has a wide range all round the world within the tropics +and at times passes their limits. The smaller, <i>F. minor</i>, appears +to be confined to the eastern seas, from Madagascar to the +Moluccas, and southward to Australia, being particularly abundant +in Torres Strait,—the other species, however, being found +there as well. Having a spread of wing equal to a swan’s and +a very small body, the buoyancy of these birds is very great. +It is a beautiful sight to watch one or more of them floating +overhead against the deep blue sky, the long forked tail alternately +opening and shutting like a pair of scissors, and the head, which +is of course kept to windward, inclined from side to side, while +the wings are to all appearance fixedly extended, though the +breeze may be constantly varying in strength and direction. +Equally fine is the contrast afforded by these birds when engaged +in fishing, or, as seems more often to happen, in robbing other +birds, especially boobies, as they are fishing. Then the speed +of their flight is indeed seen to advantage, as well as the marvellous +suddenness with which they can change their rapid course +as their victim tries to escape from their attack. Before gales +frigate-birds are said often to fly low, and their appearance +near or over land, except at their breeding-time, is supposed to +portend a hurricane.<a name="fa2e" id="fa2e" href="#ft2e"><span class="sp">2</span></a> Generally seen singly or in pairs, except +when the prospect of prey induces them to congregate, they +breed in large companies, and O. Salvin has graphically described +(<i>Ibis</i>, 1864, p. 375) one of their settlements off the coast of +British Honduras, which he visited in May 1862. Here they +chose the highest mangrove-trees<a name="fa3e" id="fa3e" href="#ft3e"><span class="sp">3</span></a> on which to build their frail +nests, and seemed to prefer the leeward side. The single egg +laid in each nest has a white and chalky shell very like that of a +cormorant’s. The nestlings are clothed in pure white down, +and so thickly as to resemble puff-balls. When fledged, the +beak, head, neck and belly are white, the legs and feet bluish-white, +but the body is dark above. The adult females retain the +white beneath, but the adult males lose it, and in both sexes at +maturity the upper plumage is of a very dark chocolate brown, +nearly black, with a bright metallic gloss, while the feet in the +females are pink, and black in the males—the last also acquiring +a bright scarlet pouch, capable of inflation, and being perceptible +when on the wing. The habits of <i>F. minor</i> seem wholly to +resemble those of <i>F. aquila</i>. According to J. M. Bechstein, an +example of this last species was obtained at the mouth of the +Weser in January 1792.</p> +<div class="author">(A. N.)</div> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1e" id="ft1e" href="#fa1e"><span class="fn">1</span></a> “Man-of-war-bird” is also sometimes applied to it, and is +perhaps the older name; but it is less distinctive, some of the larger +Albatrosses being so called, and, in books at least, has generally +passed out of use.</p> + +<p><a name="ft2e" id="ft2e" href="#fa2e"><span class="fn">2</span></a> Hence another of the names—“hurricane-bird”—by which this +species is occasionally known.</p> + +<p><a name="ft3e" id="ft3e" href="#fa3e"><span class="fn">3</span></a> Captain Taylor, however, found their nests as well on low bushes +of the same tree in the Bay of Fonseca (<i>Ibis</i>, 1859, pp. 150-152).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIGG,<a name="ar59" id="ar59"></a></span> the wife of the god Odin (Woden) in northern mythology. +She was known also to other Teutonic peoples both on +the continent (O. H. Ger. <i>Friia</i>, Langobardic <i>Frea</i>) and in England, +where her name still survives in Friday (O. E. <i>Frigedæg</i>). +She is often wrongly identified with Freyia. (See <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Teutonic +Peoples</a></span>, <i>ad fin</i>.)</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIGIDARIUM,<a name="ar60" id="ar60"></a></span> the Latin term (from <i>frigidus</i>, cold) applied +to the open area of the Roman thermae, in which there was +generally a cold swimming bath, and sometimes to the bath +(see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Baths</a></span>). From the description given by Aelius Spartianus +(<span class="scs">A.D.</span> 297) it would seem that portions of the frigidarium were +covered over by a ceiling formed of interlaced bars of gilt bronze, +and this statement has been to a certain extent substantiated +by the discovery of many tons of <b>T</b>-shaped iron found in the +excavations under the paving of the frigidarium of the thermae +of Caracalla. Dr J. H. Middleton in <i>The Remains of Ancient +Rome</i> (1892) points out that in the part of the enclosure walls +are deep sinkings to receive the ends of the great girders. He +suggests that the panels of the lattice-work ceiling were filled in +with concrete made of light pumice stone.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIIS, JOHAN<a name="ar61" id="ar61"></a></span> (1494-1570), Danish statesman, was born in +1494, and was educated at Odense and at Copenhagen, completing +his studies abroad. Few among the ancient Danish nobility +occupy so prominent a place in Danish history as Johan Friis, +who exercised a decisive influence in the government of the +realm during the reign of three kings. He was one of the first +of the magnates to adhere to the Reformation and its promoter +King Frederick I. (1523-1533), his apostasy being so richly +rewarded out of the spoils of the plundered Church that his heirs +had to restore property of the value of 1,000,000 kroner. Friis +succeeded Claus Gjoodsen as imperial chancellor in 1532, and +held that dignity till his death. During the ensuing interregnum +he powerfully contributed, at the head of the nobles of Funen +and Jutland, to the election of Christian III. (1533-1559), but +in the course of the “Count’s War” he was taken prisoner by +Count Christopher, the Catholic candidate for the throne, and +forced to do him homage. Subsequently by judicious bribery +he contrived to escape to Germany, and from thence rejoined +Christian III. He was one of the plenipotentiaries who concluded +peace with Lübeck at the congress of Hamburg, and subsequently +took an active part in the great work of national reconstruction +necessitated by the Reformation, acting as mediator between +the Danish and the German parties who were contesting for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id="page232"></a>232</span> +supremacy during the earlier years of Christian III. This he was +able to do, as a moderate Lutheran, whose calmness and common +sense contrasted advantageously with the unbridled violence +of his contemporaries. As the first chancellor of the reconstructed +university of Copenhagen, Friis took the keenest +interest in spiritual and scientific matters, and was the first donor +of a legacy to the institution. He also enjoyed the society of +learned men, especially of “those who could talk with him +concerning ancient monuments and their history.” He encouraged +Hans Svaning to complete Saxo’s history of Denmark, +and Anders Vedel to translate Saxo into Danish. His generosity +to poor students was well known; but he could afford to be +liberal, as his share of spoliated Church property had made him +one of the wealthiest men in Denmark. Under King Frederick II. +(1559-1588), who understood but little of state affairs, Friis +was well-nigh omnipotent. He was largely responsible for the +Scandinavian Seven Years’ War (1562-70), which did so much +to exacerbate the relations between Denmark and Sweden. +Friis died on the 5th of December 1570, a few days before the +peace of Stettin, which put an end to the exhausting and unnecessary +struggle.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIMLEY,<a name="ar62" id="ar62"></a></span> an urban district in the Chertsey parliamentary +division of Surrey, England, 33 m. W.S.W. from London by +the London & South-Western railway, and 1 m. N. of Farnborough +in Hampshire. Pop. (1901) 8409. Its healthy climate, +its position in the sandy heath-district of the west of Surrey, +and its proximity to Aldershot Camp have contributed to its +growth as a residential township. To the east the moorland +rises in the picturesque elevation of Chobham Ridges; and +3 m. N.E. is Bagshot, another village growing into a residential +town, on the heath of the same name extending into Berkshire. +Bisley Camp, to which in 1890 the meetings of the National +Rifle Association were removed from Wimbledon, is 4 m. E. +Coniferous trees and rhododendrons are characteristic products +of the soil, and large nurseries are devoted to their cultivation.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIMONT, JOHANN MARIA PHILIPP,<a name="ar63" id="ar63"></a></span> <span class="sc">Count of Palota, +Prince of Antrodocco</span> (1759-1831), Austrian general, entered +the Austrian cavalry as a trooper in 1776, won his commission +in the War of the Bavarian Succession, and took part in the +Turkish wars and in the early campaigns against the French +Revolutionary armies, in which he frequently earned distinction. +At Frankenthal in 1796 he won the cross of Maria Theresa. In +the campaign of 1800 he distinguished himself greatly as a +cavalry leader at Marengo (14th of June), and in the next year +became major-general. In the war of 1805 he was again employed +in Italy and won further renown by his gallantry at the battle +of Caldiero. In 1809 he again saw active service in Italy in the +rank of lieutenant field marshal, and in 1812 led the cavalry of +Schwarzenberg’s corps in the Russian campaign. He served in +the campaigns of 1813-14 in high command, and rendered +conspicuous service at Brienne-La Rothière and at Arcis-sur-Aube. +In 1815 he was commander-in-chief of the Austrians in +Italy, and his army penetrated France as far as Lyons, which +was entered on the 11th of July. With the army of occupation +he remained in France for some years, and in 1819 he commanded +at Venice. In 1821 he led the Austrian army which was employed +against the Neapolitan rebels, and by the 24th of March he had +victoriously entered Naples. His reward from King Ferdinand +of Naples was the title of prince of Antrodocco and a handsome +sum of money, and from his own master the rank of general of +cavalry. After this he commanded in North Italy, and was +called upon to deal with many outbreaks of the Italian patriots. +He became president of the Aulic council in 1831, but died a few +months later.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRISCHES HAFF,<a name="ar64" id="ar64"></a></span> a lagoon on the Baltic coast of Germany, +within the provinces East and West Prussia, between Danzig +and Königsberg. It is 52 m. in length, from 4 to 12 m. broad, +332 sq. m. in area, and is separated from the Baltic by a narrow +spit or bank of land. This barrier was torn open by a storm in +1510, and the channel thus formed, now dredged out to a depth +of 22 ft., affords a navigable passage for vessels. Into the Haff +flow the Nogat, the Elbing, the Passarge, the Pregel and the +Frisching, from the last of which the name Frisches Haff probably +arose.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRISCHLIN, PHILIPP NIKODEMUS<a name="ar65" id="ar65"></a></span> (1547-1590), German +philologist and poet, was born on the 22nd of September 1547 +at Balingen in Württemberg, where his father was parish +minister. He was educated at the university of Tübingen, +where in 1568 he was promoted to the chair of poetry and +history. In 1575 for his comedy of <i>Rebecca</i>, which he read at +Regensburg before the emperor Maximilian II., he was rewarded +with the laureateship, and in 1577 he was made a count palatine +(<i>comes palatinus</i>) or <i>Pfalzgraf</i>. In 1582 his unguarded language +and reckless life made it necessary that he should leave Tübingen, +and he accepted a mastership at Laibach in Carniola, which he +held for about two years. Shortly after his return to the university +in 1584, he was threatened with a criminal prosecution on a +charge of immoral conduct, and the threat led to his withdrawal +to Frankfort-on-Main in 1587. For eighteen months he taught +in the Brunswick gymnasium, and he appears also to have resided +occasionally at Strassburg, Marburg and Mainz. From the +last-named city he wrote certain libellous letters, which led to his +being arrested in March 1590. He was imprisoned in the fortress +of Hohenurach, near Reutlingen, where, on the night of the 29th +of November 1590, he was killed by a fall in attempting to let +himself down from the window of his cell.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Frischlin’s prolific and versatile genius produced a great variety +of works, which entitle him to some rank both among poets and +among scholars. In his Latin verse he often successfully imitated +the classical models; his comedies are not without freshness and +vivacity; and some of his versions and commentaries, particularly +those on the <i>Georgics</i> and <i>Bucolics</i> of Virgil, though now well-nigh +forgotten, were important contributions to the scholarship of his +time. There is no collected edition of his works, but his <i>Opera +poëtica</i> were published twelve times between 1535 and 1636. Among +those most widely known may be mentioned the <i>Hebraeis</i> (1590), a +Latin epic based on the Scripture history of the Jews; the <i>Elegiaca</i> +(1601), his collected lyric poetry, in twenty-two books; the <i>Opera +scenica</i> (1604) consisting of six comedies and two tragedies (among +the former, <i>Julius Caesar redivivus</i>, completed 1584); the <i>Grammatica +Latina</i> (1585); the versions of Callimachus and Aristophanes; +and the commentaries on Persius and Virgil. See the +monograph of D. F. Strauss (<i>Leben und Schriften des Dichters und +Philologen Frischlin</i>, 1856).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRISI, PAOLO<a name="ar66" id="ar66"></a></span> (1728-1784), Italian mathematician and +astronomer, was born at Milan on the 13th of April 1728. He +was educated at the Barnabite monastery and afterwards at +Padua. When twenty-one years of age he composed a treatise +on the figure of the earth, and the reputation which he soon +acquired led to his appointment by the king of Sardinia to the +professorship of philosophy in the college of Casale. His friendship +with Radicati, a man of liberal opinions, occasioned Frisi’s +removal by his clerical superiors to Novara, where he was compelled +to do duty as a preacher. In 1753 he was elected a corresponding +member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and shortly +afterwards he became professor of philosophy in the Barnabite +College of St Alexander at Milan. An acrimonious attack by a +young Jesuit, about this time, upon his dissertation on the +figure of the earth laid the foundation of his animosity against +the Jesuits, with whose enemies, including J. d’Alembert, +J. A. N. Condorcet and other Encyclopedists, he later closely +associated himself. In 1756 he was appointed by Leopold, +grand-duke of Tuscany, to the professorship of mathematics +in the university of Pisa, a post which he held for eight years. +In 1757 he became an associate of the Imperial Academy of +St Petersburg, and a foreign member of the Royal Society of +London, and in 1758 a member of the Academy of Berlin, in +1766 of that of Stockholm, and in 1770 of the Academies of +Copenhagen and of Bern. From several European crowned +heads he received, at various times, marks of special distinction, +and the empress Maria Theresa granted him a yearly pension +of 100 sequins (£50). In 1764 he was created professor of +mathematics in the palatine schools at Milan, and obtained +from Pope Pius VI. release from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and +authority to become a secular priest. In 1766 he visited France +and England, and in 1768 Vienna. In 1777 he became director +of a school of architecture at Milan. His knowledge of hydraulics +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>233</span> +caused him to be frequently consulted with respect to the management +of canals and other watercourses in various parts of Europe. +It was through his means that lightning-conductors were first +introduced into Italy for the protection of buildings. He died +on the 22nd of November 1784.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>His publications include:—<i>Disquisitio mathematica in causam +physicam figurae et magnitudinis terrae</i> (Milan, 1751); <i>Saggio della +morale filosofia</i> (Lugano, 1753); <i>Nova electricitatis theoria</i> (Milan, +1755); <i>Dissertatio de motu diurno terrae</i> (Pisa, 1758); <i>Dissertationes +variae</i> (2 vols. 4to, Lucca, 1759, 1761); <i>Del modo di regolare i fiumi +e i torrenti</i> (Lucca, 1762); <i>Cosmographia physica et mathematica</i> +(Milan, 1774, 1775, 2 vols. 4to, his chief work); <i>Dell’ architettura, +statica e idraulica</i> (Milan, 1777); and other treatises.</p> + +<p>See Verri, <i>Memorie ... del signor dom Paolo Frisi</i> (Milan, 1787), +4to; Fabbroni, “Elogi d’ illustri Italiani,” <i>Atti di Milano</i>, vol. ii.; +J. C. Poggendorff, <i>Biograph. litterar. Handwörterbuch</i>, vol. i.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRISIAN ISLANDS,<a name="ar67" id="ar67"></a></span> a chain of islands, lying from 3 to 20 m. +from the mainland, and stretching from the Zuider Zee E. and +N. as far as Jutland, along the coasts of Holland and Germany. +They are divided into three groups:—(1) The West Frisian, (2) +the East Frisian, and (3) the North Frisian.</p> + +<p>The chain of the Frisian Islands marks the outer fringe of the +former continental coast-line, and is separated from the mainland +by shallows, known as Wadden or Watten, answering to the <i>maria +vadosa</i> of the Romans. Notwithstanding the protection afforded +by sand-dunes and earthen embankments backed by stones +and timber, the Frisian Islands are slowly but surely crumbling +away under the persistent attacks of storm and flood, and the +old Frisian proverb “<i>de nich will diken mut wiken</i>” (“who will +not build dikes must go away”) still holds good. Many of the +Frisian legends and folk-songs deal with the submerged villages +and hamlets, which lie buried beneath the treacherous waters +of the Wadden. Heinrich Heine made use of these legends in his +<i>Nordseebilder</i>, composed during a visit to Norderney in 1825. +The Prussian and Dutch governments annually expend large +sums for the protection of the islands, and in some cases the erosion +on the seaward side is counterbalanced by the accretion of land +on the inner side, fine sandy beaches being formed well suited +for sea-bathing, which <span class="correction" title="amended from attracts">attract</span> many visitors in summer. The +inhabitants of these islands support themselves by seafaring, +pilotage, grazing of cattle and sheep, fishing and a little agriculture, +chiefly potato-growing.</p> + +<p>The islands, though well lighted, are dangerous to navigation, +and a glance at a wreck chart will show the entire chain to be +densely dotted. One of the most remarkable disasters was the +loss of H.M.S. “La Lutine,” 32 guns, which was wrecked off +Vlieland in October 1799, only one hand being saved, who +died before reaching England. “La Lutine,” which had been +captured from the French by Admiral Duncan, was carrying +a large quantity of bullion and specie, which was underwritten +at Lloyd’s. The Dutch government claimed the wreck and +granted one-third of the salvage to bullion-fishers. Occasional +recoveries were made of small quantities which led to repeated +disputes and discussions, until eventually the king of the Netherlands +ceded to Great Britain, for Lloyd’s, half the remainder +of the wreck. A Dutch salvage company, which began operations +in August 1857, recovered £99,893 in the course of two years, +but it was estimated that some £1,175,000 are still unaccounted +for. The ship’s rudder, which was recovered in 1859, has been +fashioned into a chair and a table, now in the possession of +Lloyd’s.</p> + +<p>The West Frisian Islands belong to the kingdom of the Netherlands, +and embrace Texel or Tessel (71 sq. m.), Vlieland (19 sq. +m.), Terschelling (41 sq. m.), Ameland (23 sq. m.), +Schiermonnikoog (19 sq. m.), as well as the much smaller +<span class="sidenote">West Frisian.</span> +islands of Boschplaat and Rottum, which are practically +uninhabited. The northern end of Texel is called Eierland, +or “island of eggs,” in reference to the large number of sea-birds’ +eggs which are found there. It was joined to Texel by a sand-dike +in 1629-1630, and is now undistinguishable from the main island. +Texel was already separated from the mainland in the 8th century, +but remained a Frisian province and countship, which once +extended as far as Alkmaar in North Holland, until it came into +the possession of the counts of Holland. The island was occupied +by British troops from August to December 1799. The village +of Oude Schild has a harbour. The island of Terschelling once +formed a separate lordship, but was sold to the states of Holland. +The principal village of West-Terschelling has a harbour. As +early as the beginning of the 9th century Ameland was a lordship +of the influential family of Cammingha who held immediately +of the emperor, and in recognition of their independence the +Amelanders were in 1369 declared to be neutral in the fighting +between Holland and Friesland, while Cromwell made the same +declaration in 1654 with respect to the war between England and +the United Netherlands. The castle of the Camminghas in the +village of Ballum remained standing till 1810, and finally disappeared +in 1829 after four centuries. This island is joined to +the mainland of Friesland by a stone dike constructed in 1873 +for the purpose of promoting the deposit of mud. The island of +Schiermonnikoog has a village and a lighthouse. Rottum was +once the property of the ancient abbey at Rottum, 8 m. N. +of Groningen, of which there are slight remains.</p> + +<p>With the exception of Wangeroog, which belongs to the grand +duchy of Oldenburg, the East Frisian Islands belong to Prussia. +They comprise Borkum (12½ sq. m.), with two lighthouses +and connected by steamer with Emden and +<span class="sidenote">East Frisian.</span> +Leer; Memmert; Juist (2¼ sq. m.), with two lifeboat +stations, and connected by steamer with Norddeich and Greetsiel; +Norderney (5½ sq. m.); Baltrum, with a lifeboat station; +Langeoog (8 sq. m.), connected by steamer with the adjacent +islands, and with Bensersiel on the mainland; Spiekeroog +(4 sq. m.), with a tramway for conveyance to the bathing beach, +and connected by steamer with Carolinenziel; and Wangeroog +(2 sq. m.), with a lighthouse and lifeboat station. All these +islands are visited for sea-bathing. In the beginning of the +18th century Wangeroog comprised eight times its present area. +Borkum and Juist are two surviving fragments of the original +island of Borkum (computed at 380 sq. m.), known to Drusus as +<i>Fabaria</i>, and to Pliny as <i>Burchana</i>, which was rent asunder by +the sea in 1170. Neuwerk and Scharhörn, situated off the mouth +of the Elbe, are islands belonging to the state of Hamburg. +Neuwerk, containing some marshland protected by dikes, has two +lighthouses and a lifeboat station. At low water it can be reached +from Duhnen by carriage.</p> + +<p>About the year 1250 the area of the North Frisian Islands was +estimated at 1065 sq. m.; by 1850 this had diminished to only +105 sq. m. This group embraces the islands of Nordstrand +(17¼ sq. m.), which up to 1634 formed one +<span class="sidenote">North Frisian.</span> +larger island with the adjoining Pohnshallig and +Nordstrandisch-Moor; Pellworm (16¼ sq. m.), protected by a +circle of dikes and connected by steamer with Husum on the +mainland; Amrum (10½ sq. m.); Föhr (32 sq. m.); Sylt (38 +sq. m.); Röm (16 sq. m.), with several villages, the principal of +which is Kirkeby; Fanö (21 sq. m.); and Heligoland (¼ sq. m.). +With the exception of Fanö, which is Danish, all these islands +belong to Prussia. In the North Frisian group there are also +several smaller islands called Halligen. These rise generally only +a few feet above the level of the sea, and are crowned by a single +house standing on an artificial mound and protected by a +surrounding dike or embankment.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography.</span>—Staring, <i>De Bodem van Nederland</i> (1856); +Blink, <i>Nederland en zijne Bewoners</i> (1892); P. H. Witkamp, +<i>Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek van Nederland</i> (1895); P. W. J. +Teding van Berkhout, <i>De Landaanwinning op de Friesche Wadden</i> +(1869); J. de Vries and T. Focken, <i>Ostfriesland</i> (1881); Dr D. F. +Buitenrust Hettema, <i>Fryske Bybleteek</i> (Utrecht, 1895); Dr Eugen +Traeger, <i>Die Halligen der Nordsee</i> (Stuttgart, 1892); also <i>Globus</i>, +vol. lxxviii. (1900), No. 15; P. Axelsen, in <i>Deut. Rundschau für +Geog. u. Statistik</i> (1898); Christian Jensen, <i>Vom Dünenstrand der +Nordsee und vom Wattenmeer</i> (Schleswig, 1901), which contains a +bibliography; <i>Osterloh, Wangeroog und sein Seebad</i> (Emden, 1884); +Zwickert, <i>Führer durch das Nordseebad Wangeroog</i> (Oldenburg, +1894); Nellner, <i>Die Nordseeinsel Spickeroog</i> (Emden, 1884); +Tongers, <i>Die Nordseeinsel Langeoog</i> (2nd ed., Norden, 1892); Meier, +<i>Die Nordseeinsel Borkum</i> (10th ed., Emden, 1894); Herquet, <i>Die +Insel Borkum</i>, &c. (Emden, 1886); Scherz, <i>Die Nordseeinsel Juist</i> +(2nd ed., Norden, 1893); von Bertouch, <i>Vor 40 Jahren: Natur und +Kultur auf der Insel Nordstrand</i> (Weimar, 1891); W. G. Black, +<i>Heligoland and the Islands of the North Sea</i> (Glasgow, 1888).</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>234</span></p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRISIANS<a name="ar68" id="ar68"></a></span> (Lat. <i>Frisii</i>; in Med. Lat. <i>Frisones</i>, <i>Frisiones</i>, +<i>Fresones</i>; in their own tongue <i>Frêsa</i>, <i>Frêsen</i>), a people of +Teutonic (Low-German) stock, who in the first century of our +era were found by the Romans in occupation of the coast lands +stretching from the mouth of the Scheldt to that of the Ems. +They were nearly related both by speech and blood to the Saxons +and Angles, and other Low German tribes, who lived to the east +of the Ems and in Holstein and Schleswig. The first historical +notices of the Frisians are found in the <i>Annals</i> of Tacitus. They +were rendered (or a portion of them) tributary by Drusus, and +became <i>socii</i> of the Roman people. In <span class="scs">A.D.</span> 28 the exactions of +a Roman official drove them to revolt, and their subjection was +henceforth nominal. They submitted again to Cn. Domitius +Corbulo in the year 47, but shortly afterwards the emperor +Claudius ordered the withdrawal of all Roman troops to the left +bank of the Rhine. In 58 they attempted unsuccessfully to +appropriate certain districts between the Rhine and the Yssel, +and in 70 they took part in the campaign of Claudius Civilis. +From this time onwards their name practically disappears. As +regards their geographical position Ptolemy states that they +inhabited the coast above the Bructeri as far as the Ems, while +Tacitus speaks of them as adjacent to the Rhine. But there is +some reason for believing that the part of Holland which lies to +the west of the Zuider Zee was at first inhabited by a different +people, the Canninefates, a sister tribe to the Batavi. A trace +of this people is perhaps preserved in the name Kennemerland +or Kinnehem, formerly applied to the same district. Possibly, +therefore, Tacitus’s statement holds good only for the period +subsequent to the revolt of Civilis, when we hear of the Canninefates +for the last time.</p> + +<p>In connexion with the movements of the migration period the +Frisians are hardly ever mentioned, though some of them are +said to have surrendered to the Roman prince Constantius about +the year 293. On the other hand we hear very frequently of +Saxons in the coast regions of the Netherlands. Since the Saxons +(Old Saxons) of later times were an inland people, one can +hardly help suspecting either that the two nations have been +confused or, what is more probable, that a considerable mixture +of population, whether by conquest or otherwise, had taken +place. Procopius (<i>Goth.</i> iv. 20) speaks of the Frisians as one of +the nations which inhabited Britain in his day, but we have no +evidence from other sources to bear out his statement. In +Anglo-Saxon poetry mention is frequently made of a Frisian +king named Finn, the son of Folcwalda, who came into conflict +with a certain Hnaef, a vassal of the Danish king Healfdene, +about the middle of the 5th century. Hnaef was killed, but his +followers subsequently slew Finn in revenge. The incident is +obscure in many respects, but it is perhaps worth noting that +Hnaef’s chief follower, Hengest, may quite possibly be identical +with the founder of the Kentish dynasty. About the year 520 +the Frisians are said to have joined the Frankish prince Theodberht +in destroying a piratical expedition which had sailed up +the Rhine under Chocilaicus (Hygelac), king of the Götar. +Towards the close of the century they begin to figure much more +prominently in Frankish writings. There is no doubt that by +this time their territories had been greatly extended in both +directions. Probably some Frisians took part with the Angles +and Saxons in their sea-roving expeditions, and assisted their +neighbours in their invasions and subsequent conquest of England +and the Scottish lowlands.</p> + +<p>The rise of the power of the Franks and the advance of their +dominion northwards brought on a collision with the Frisians, who +in the 7th century were still in possession of the whole of the seacoast, +and apparently ruled over the greater part of modern +Flanders. Under the protection of the Frankish king Dagobert +(622-638), the Christian missionaries Amandus (St Amand) +and Eligius (St Eloi) attempted the conversion of these Flemish +Frisians, and their efforts were attended with a certain measure +of success; but farther north the building of a church by Dagobert +at Trajectum (Utrecht) at once aroused the fierce hostility +of the heathen tribesmen of the Zuider Zee. The “free” Frisians +could not endure this Frankish outpost on their borders. Utrecht +was attacked and captured, and the church destroyed. The +first missionary to meet with any success among the Frisians was +the Englishman Wilfrid of York, who, being driven by a storm +upon the coast, was hospitably received by the king, Adgild or +Adgisl, and was allowed to preach Christianity in the land. +Adgild appears to have admitted the overlordship of the Frankish +king, Dagobert II. (675). Under his successor, however, Radbod +(Frisian Rêdbâd), an attempt was made to extirpate Christianity +and to free the Frisians from the Frankish subjection. +He was, however, beaten by Pippin of Heristal in the battle of +Dorstadt (689), and was compelled to cede West Frisia (<i>Frisia +citerior</i>) from the Scheldt to the Zuider Zee to the conqueror. On +Pippin’s death Radbod again attacked the Franks and advanced +as far as Cologne, where he defeated Charles Martel, Pippin’s +natural son. Eventually, however, Charles prevailed and compelled +the Frisians to submit. Radbod died in 719, but for some +years his successors struggled against the Frankish power. A +final defeat was, however, inflicted upon them by Charles Martel +in 734, which secured the supremacy of the Franks in the north, +though it was not until the days of Charles the Great (785) that +the subjection of the Frisians was completed. Meanwhile +Christianity had been making its conquests in the land, mainly +through the lifelong labours and preaching of the Englishman +Willibrord, who came to Frisia in 692 and made Utrecht his +headquarters. He was consecrated (695) at Rome archbishop of +the Frisians, and on his return founded a number of bishoprics +in the northern Netherlands, and continued his labours unremittingly +until his death in 739. It is an interesting fact that +both Wilfrid and Willibrord appear to have found no difficulty +from the first in preaching to the Frisians in their native dialect, +which was so nearly allied to their own Anglo-Saxon tongue. +The see of Utrecht founded by Willibrord has remained the chief +see of the Northern Netherlands from his day to our own. Friesland +was likewise the scene of a portion of the missionary labours +of a greater than Willibrord, the famous Boniface, the Apostle +of the Germans, also an Englishman. It was at Dokkum in +Friesland that he met a martyr’s death (754).</p> + +<p>Charles the Great granted the Frisians important privileges +under a code known as the <i>Lex Frisionum</i>, based upon the +ancient laws of the country. They received the title of freemen +and were allowed to choose their own <i>podestat</i> or imperial +governor. In the <i>Lex Frisionum</i> three districts are clearly +distinguished: West Frisia from the Zwin to the Flie; Middle +Frisia from the Flie to the Lauwers; East Frisia from the +Lauwers to the Weser. At the partition treaty of Verdun (843) +Frisia became part of Lotharingia or Lorraine; at the treaty of +Mersen (870) it was divided between the kingdoms of the East +Franks (Austrasia) and the West Franks (Westrasia); in 880 +the whole country was united to Austrasia; in 911 it fell under +the dominion of Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, +but the districts of East Frisia asserted their independence and +for a long time governed themselves after a very simple democratic +fashion. The history of West Frisia gradually loses itself +in that of the countship of Holland and the see of Utrecht (see +<span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Holland</a></span> and <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Utrecht</a></span>).</p> + +<p>The influence of the Frisians during the interval between the +invasion of Britain and the loss of their independence must have +been greater than is generally recognized. They were a seafaring +people and engaged largely in trade, especially perhaps +the slave trade, their chief emporium being Wyk te Duurstede. +During the period in question there is considerable archaeological +evidence for intercourse between the west coast of Norway +and the regions south of the North Sea, and it is worth noting +that this seems to have come to an end early in the 9th century. +Probably it is no mere accident that the first appearance, or +rather reappearance, of Scandinavian pirates in the west took +place shortly after the overthrow of the Frisians. Since Radbod’s +dominions extended from Duerstede to Heligoland his power +must have been by no means inconsiderable.</p> + +<p>Besides the Frisians discussed above there is a people called +North Frisians, who inhabit the west coast of Schleswig. At +present a Frisian dialect is spoken only between Tondern and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>235</span> +Husum, but formerly it extended farther both to the north and +south. In historical times these North Frisians were subjects +of the Danish kingdom and not connected in any way with the +Frisians of the empire. They are first mentioned by Saxo +Grammaticus in connexion with the exile of Knud V. Saxo +recognized that they were of Frisian origin, but did not know +when they had first settled in this region. Various opinions are +still held with regard to the question; but it seems not unlikely +that the original settlers were Frisians who had been expelled +by the Franks in the 8th century. Whether the North Frisian +language is entirely of Frisian origin is somewhat doubtful owing +to the close relationship which Frisian bears to English. The inhabitants +of the neighbouring islands, Sylt, Amrum and Föhr, +who speak a kindred dialect, have apparently never regarded +themselves as Frisians, and it is the view of many scholars that +they are the direct descendants of the ancient Saxons.</p> + +<p>In 1248 William of Holland, having become emperor, restored +to the Frisians in his countship their ancient liberties in reward +for the assistance they had rendered him in the siege of Aachen; +but in 1254 they revolted, and William lost his life in the contest +which ensued. After many struggles West Friesland became +completely subdued, and was henceforth virtually absorbed in +the county of Holland. But the Frieslanders east of the Zuider +Zee obstinately resisted repeated attempts to bring them into +subjection. In the course of the 14th century the country was +in a state of anarchy; petty lordships sprang into existence, the +interests of the common weal were forgotten or disregarded, and +the people began to be split up into factions, and these were +continually carrying on petty warfare with one another. Thus +the Fetkoopers (Fatmongers) of Oostergoo had endless feuds +with the Schieringers (Eelfishers) of Westergoo.</p> + +<p>This state of affairs favoured the attempts of the counts of +Holland to push their conquests eastward, but the main body of +the Frisians was still independent when the countship of Holland +passed into the hands of Philip the Good of Burgundy. Philip +laid claim to the whole country, but the people appealed to the +protection of the empire, and Frederick III., in August 1457, +recognized their direct dependence on the empire and called on +Philip to bring forward formal proof of his rights. Philip’s +successor, Charles the Bold, summoned an assembly of notables +at Enkhuizen in 1469, in order to secure their homage; but the +conference was without result, and the duke’s attention was soon +absorbed by other and more important affairs. The marriage +of Maximilian of Austria with the heiress of Burgundy was to be +productive of a change in the fortunes of that part of Frisia +which lies between the Vlie and the Lauwers. In 1498 Maximilian +reversed the policy of his father Frederick III., and +detached this territory, known afterwards as the province of +Friesland, from the empire. He gave it as a fief to Albert of +Saxony, who thoroughly crushed out all resistance. In 1523 it +fell with all the rest of the provinces of the Netherlands under +the strong rule of the emperor Charles, the grandson of Maximilian +and Mary of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>That part of Frisia which lies to the east of the Lauwers had +a divided history. The portion which lies between the Lauwers +and the Ems after some struggles for independence had, like the +rest of the country, to submit itself to Charles. It became +ultimately the province of the town and district of Groningen +(Stadt en Landen) (see <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Groningen</a></span>). The easternmost part +between the Ems and the Weser, which had since 1454 been a +county, was ruled by the descendants of Edzard Cirksena, and +was attached to the empire. The last of the Cirksenas, Count +Charles Edward, died in 1744 and in default of heirs male the +king of Prussia took possession of the county.</p> + +<p>The province of Friesland was one of the seven provinces +which by the treaty known as the Union of Utrecht bound +themselves together to resist the tyranny of Spain. From 1579 +to 1795 Friesland remained one of the constituent parts of the +republic of the United Provinces, but it always jealously insisted +on its sovereign rights, especially against the encroachments of +the predominant province of Holland. It maintained throughout +the whole of the republican period a certain distinctiveness of +nationality, which was marked by the preservation of a different +dialect and of a separate stadtholder. Count William Lewis +of Nassau-Siegen, nephew and son-in-law of William the Silent, +was chosen stadtholder, and through all the vicissitudes of the +17th and 18th centuries the stadtholdership was held by one of +his descendants. Frederick Henry of Orange was stadtholder +of six provinces, but not of Friesland, and even during the stadtholderless +periods which followed the deaths of William II. and +William III. of Orange the Frisians remained stanch to the +family of Nassau-Siegen. Finally, by the revolution of 1748, +William of Nassau-Siegen, stadtholder of Friesland (who, by +default of heirs male of the elder line, had become William IV., +prince of Orange), was made hereditary stadtholder of all the +provinces. His grandson in 1815 took the title of William I., +king of the Netherlands. The male line of the “Frisian” +Nassaus came to an end with the death of King William III. in +1890.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Bibliography</span>—See Tacitus, <i>Ann.</i> iv. 72 f., xi. 19 f., xiii. 54; +<i>Hist.</i> iv. 15 f.; <i>Germ.</i> 34; Ptolemy, <i>Geogr.</i> ii. 11, § 11; Dio Cassius +liv. 32; Eumenius, <i>Paneg.</i> iv. 9; the Anglo-Saxon poems, Finn, +Beowulf and Widsith; <i>Fredegarii Chronici continuatio</i> and various +German Annals; <i>Gesta regum Francorum</i>; Eddius, <i>Vita Wilfridi</i>, +cap. 25 f.; Bede, <i>Hist. Eccles</i>, iv. 22, v. 9 f.; Alcuin, <i>Vita Willebrordi</i>; +I. Undset, <i>Aarbger for nordisk Oldkyndighed</i> (1880), p. 89 ff. +(cf. E. Mogk in Paul’s <i>Grundriss d. germ. Philologie</i> ii. p. 623 ff.); +Ubbo Emmius, <i>Rerum Frisicarum historia</i> (Leiden, 1616); Pirius +Winsemius, <i>Chronique van Vriesland</i> (Franoker, 1822); C. Scotanus, +<i>Beschryvinge end Chronyck van des Heerlickheydt van Frieslandt</i> +(1655); <i>Groot Placaat en Charter-boek van Friesland</i> (ed. Baron C. F. +zu Schwarzenberg) (5 vols., Leeuwarden, 1768-1793); T. D. Wiarda, +<i>Ost-frieschische Gesch.</i> (vols. i.-ix., Aurich, 1791) (vol. x., Bremen, +1817); J. Dirks, <i>Geschiedkundig onderzoek van den Koophandel der +Friezen</i> (Utrecht, 1846); O. Klopp, <i>Gesch. Ostfrieslands</i> (3 vols., +Hanover, 1854-1858); Hooft van Iddekinge, <i>Friesland en de +Friezen in de Middeleeuwen</i> (Leiden, 1881); A. Telting, <i>Het Oudfriesche +Stadrecht</i> (The Hague, 1882); P. J. Blok, <i>Friesland im +Mittelalter</i> (Leer, 1891).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRITH<a name="ar69" id="ar69"></a></span> (or <span class="sc">Fryth</span>), <b>JOHN</b> (<i>c.</i> 1503-1533), English Reformer +and Protestant martyr, was born at Westerham, Kent. He was +educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, where Gardiner, +afterwards bishop of Winchester, was his tutor. At the invitation +of Cardinal Wolsey, after taking his degree he migrated +(December 1525) to the newly founded college of St Frideswide +or Cardinal College (now Christ Church), Oxford. The sympathetic +interest which he showed in the Reformation movement +in Germany caused him to be suspected as a heretic, and led to his +imprisonment for some months. Subsequently he appears to +have resided chiefly at the newly founded Protestant university +of Marburg, where he became acquainted with several scholars +and reformers of note, especially Patrick Hamilton (<i>q.v.</i>). +Frith’s first publication was a translation of Hamilton’s <i>Places</i>, +made shortly after the martyrdom of its author; and soon +afterwards the <i>Revelation of Antichrist</i>, a translation from the +German, appeared, along with <i>A Pistle to the Christen Reader</i>, +by “Richard Brightwell” (supposed to be Frith), and <i>An +Antithesis wherein are compared togeder Christes Actes and our +Holye Father the Popes</i>, dated “at Malborow in the lande of +Hesse,” 12th July 1529. His <i>Disputacyon of Purgatorye</i>, a +treatise in three books, against Rastell, Sir T. More and Fisher +(bishop of Rochester) respectively, was published at the same +place in 1531. While at Marburg, Frith also assisted Tyndale, +whose acquaintance he had made at Oxford (or perhaps in +London) in his literary labours. In 1532 he ventured back to +England, apparently on some business in connexion with the +prior of Reading. Warrants for his arrest were almost immediately +issued at the instance of Sir T. More, then lord chancellor. +Frith ultimately fell into the hands of the authorities at Milton +Shore in Essex, as he was on the point of making his escape to +Flanders. The rigour of his imprisonment in the Tower was +somewhat abated when Sir T. Audley succeeded to the chancellorship, +and it was understood that both Cromwell and Cranmer +were disposed to show great leniency. But the treacherous +circulation of a manuscript “lytle treatise” on the sacraments, +which Frith had written for the information of a friend, and +without any view to publication, served further to excite the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>236</span> +hostility of his enemies. In consequence of a sermon preached +before him against the “sacramentaries,” the king ordered that +Frith should be examined; he was afterwards tried and found +guilty of having denied, with regard to the doctrines of purgatory +and of transubstantiation, that they were necessary articles of +faith. On the 23rd of June 1533 he was handed over to the +secular arm, and at Smithfield on the 4th of July following he +was burnt at the stake. During his captivity he wrote, besides +several letters of interest, a reply to More’s letter against +Frith’s “lytle treatise”; also two tracts entitled <i>A Mirror or +Glass to know thyself</i>, and <i>A Mirror or Looking-glass wherein you +may behold the Sacrament of Baptism</i>.</p> + +<p>Frith is an interesting and so far important figure in English +ecclesiastical history as having been the first to maintain and +defend that doctrine regarding the sacrament of Christ’s body +and blood, which ultimately came to be incorporated in the +English communion office. Twenty-three years after Frith’s +death as a martyr to the doctrine of that office, that “Christ’s +natural body and blood are in Heaven, not here,” Cranmer, who +had been one of his judges, went to the stake for the same belief. +Within three years more, it had become the publicly professed +faith of the entire English nation.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See A. à Wood, <i>Athenae Oxonienses</i> (ed. P. Bliss, 1813), i. p. 74; +John Foxe, <i>Acts and Monuments</i> (ed. G. Townshend, 1843-1849), +v. pp. 1-16 (also Index); G. Burnet, <i>Hist. of the Reformation of the +Church of England</i> (ed. N. Pocock, 1865), i. p. 273; L. Richmond, +<i>The Fathers of the English Church</i>, i. (1807); <i>Life and Martyrdom of +John Frith</i> (London, 1824), published by the Church of England +Tract Society; Deborah Alcock, <i>Six Heroic Men</i> (1906).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL<a name="ar70" id="ar70"></a></span> (1819-1909), English painter, +was born at Aldfield, in Yorkshire, on the 9th of January 1819. +His parents moved in 1826 to Harrogate, where his father became +landlord of the Dragon Inn, and it was then that the boy began +his general education at a school at Knaresborough. Later he +went for about two years to a school at St Margaret’s, near +Dover, where he was placed specially under the direction of the +drawing-master, as a step towards his preparation for the profession +which his father had decided on as the one that he wished +him to adopt. In 1835 he was entered as a student in the well-known +art school kept by Henry Sass in Bloomsbury, from which +he passed after two years to the Royal Academy schools. His +first independent experience was gained in 1839, when he went +about for some months in Lincolnshire executing several commissions +for portraits; but he soon began to attempt compositions, +and in 1840 his first picture, “Malvolio, cross-gartered +before the Countess Olivia,” appeared at the Royal Academy. +During the next few years he produced several notable paintings, +among them “Squire Thornhill relating his town adventures to +the Vicar’s family,” and “The Village Pastor,” which established +his reputation as one of the most promising of the younger men +of that time. This last work was exhibited in 1845, and in the +autumn of that year he was elected an Associate of the Royal +Academy. His promotion to the rank of Academician followed +in 1853, when he was chosen to fill the vacancy caused by +Turner’s death. The chief pictures painted by him during his +tenure of Associateship were: “An English Merry-making +in the Olden Time,” “Old Woman accused of Witchcraft,” +“The Coming of Age,” “Sancho and Don Quixote,” “Hogarth +before the Governor of Calais,” and the “Scene from Goldsmith’s +’Good-natured Man,’” which was commissioned in 1850 by +Mr Sheepshanks, and bequeathed by him to the South Kensington +Museum. Then came a succession of large compositions which +gained for the artist an extraordinary popularity. “Life at +the Seaside,” better known as “Ramsgate Sands,” was exhibited +in 1854, and was bought by Queen Victoria; “The Derby Day,” +in 1858; “Claude Duval,” in 1860; “The Railway Station,” +in 1862; “The Marriage of the Prince of Wales,” painted for +Queen Victoria, in 1865; “The Last Sunday of Charles II.,” +in 1867; “The Salon d’Or,” in 1871; “The Road to Ruin,” +a series, in 1878; a similar series, “The Race for Wealth,” +shown at a gallery in King Street, St James’s, in 1880; “The +Private View,” in 1883; and “John Knox at Holyrood,” in +1886. Frith also painted a considerable number of portraits +of well-known people. In 1889 he became an honorary retired +academician. His “Derby Day” is in the National Gallery of +British Art. In his youth, in common with the men by whom +he was surrounded, he had leanings towards romance, and he +scored many successes as a painter of imaginative subjects. +In these he proved himself to be possessed of exceptional qualities +as a colourist and manipulator, qualities that promised to earn +for him a secure place among the best executants of the British +School. But in his middle period he chose a fresh direction. +Fascinated by the welcome which the public gave to his first +attempts to illustrate the life of his own times, he undertook a +considerable series of large canvases, in which he commented +on the manners and morals of society as he found it. He became +a pictorial preacher, a painter who moralized about the everyday +incidents of modern existence; and he sacrificed some of his +technical variety. There remained, however, a remarkable +sense of characterization, and an acute appreciation of dramatic +effect. Frith died on the 2nd of November 1909.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Frith published his <i>Autobiography and Reminiscences</i> in 1887, and +<i>Further Reminiscences</i> in 1889.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRITILLARY<a name="ar71" id="ar71"></a></span> (<i>Fritillaria</i>: from Lat. <i>fritillus</i>, a chess-board, +so called from the chequered markings on the petals), a genus +of hardy bulbous plants of the natural order Liliaceae, containing +about 50 species widely distributed in the northern hemisphere. +The genus is represented in Britain by the fritillary or snake’s +head, which occurs in moist meadows in the southern half of +England, especially in Oxfordshire. A much larger plant is +the crown imperial (<i>F. imperialis</i>), a native of western Asia +and well known in gardens. This grows to a height of about +3 ft., the lower part of the stoutish stem being furnished with +leaves, while near the top is developed a crown of large pendant +flowers surmounted by a tuft of bright green leaves like those +of the lower part of the stem, only smaller. The flowers are +bell-shaped, yellow or red, and in some of the forms double. The +plant grows freely in good garden soil, preferring a deep well-drained +loam, and is all the better for a top-dressing of manure +as it approaches the flowering stage. Strong clumps of five or +six roots of one kind have a very fine effect. It is a very suitable +subject for the back row in mixed flower borders, or for recesses +in the front part of shrubbery borders. It flowers in April or +early in May. There are a few named varieties, but the most +generally grown are the single and double yellow, and the single +and double red, the single red having also two variegated varieties, +with the leaves striped respectively with white and yellow.</p> + +<p>“Fritillary” is also the name of a kind of butterfly.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRITZLAR,<a name="ar72" id="ar72"></a></span> a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of +Hesse-Cassel, on the left bank of the Eder, 16 m. S.W. from Cassel, +on the railway Wabern-Wildungen. Pop. (1905) 3448. It is a +prettily situated old-fashioned place, with an Evangelical and two +Roman Catholic churches, one of the latter, that of St Peter, a +striking medieval edifice. As early as 732 Boniface, the apostle of +Germany, established the church of St Peter and a small +Benedictine monastery at Frideslar, “the quiet home” or +“abode of peace.” Before long the school connected with the +monastery became famous, and among its earlier scholars it +numbered Sturm, abbot of Fulda, and Megingod, second bishop +of Würzburg. When Boniface found himself unable to continue +the supervision of the society himself, he entrusted the office to +Wigbert of Glastonbury, who thus became the first abbot of +Fritzlar. In 774 the little settlement was taken and burnt by +the Saxons; but it evidently soon recovered from the blow. +For a short time after 786 it was the seat of the bishopric of +Buraburg, which had been founded by Boniface in 741. At the +diet of Fritzlar in 919 Henry I. was elected German king. In +the beginning of the 13th century the village received municipal +rights; in 1232 it was captured and burned by the landgrave +Conrad of Thuringia and his allies; in 1631 it was taken by +William of Hesse; in 1760 it was successfully defended by +General Luckner against the French; and in 1761 it was occupied +by the French and unsuccessfully bombarded by the Allies. +As a principality Fritzlar continued subject to the archbishopric +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>237</span> +of Mainz till 1802, when it was incorporated with Hesse. From +1807 to 1814 it belonged to the kingdom of Westphalia; and +in 1866 passed with Hesse Cassel to Prussia.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRIULI<a name="ar73" id="ar73"></a></span> (in the local dialect, <i>Furlanei</i>), a district at the head +of the Adriatic Sea, at present divided between Italy and Austria, +the Italian portion being included in the province of Udine and +the district of Portogruaro, and the Austrian comprising the +province of Görz and Gradiska, and the so-called Idrian district. +In the north and east Friuli includes portions of the Julian and +Carnic Alps, while the south is an alluvial plain richly watered +by the Isonzo, the Tagliamento, and many lesser streams which, +although of small volume during the dry season, come down in +enormous floods after rain or thaw. The inhabitants, known +as Furlanians, are mainly Italians, but they speak a dialect of +their own which contains Celtic elements. The area of the +country is about 3300 sq. m.; it contains about 700,000 inhabitants.</p> + +<p>Friuli derives its name from the Roman town of <i>Forum +Julii</i>, or <i>Forojulium</i>, the modern Cividale, which is said by +Paulus Diaconus to have been founded by Julius Caesar. In the +2nd century <span class="scs">B.C.</span> the district was subjugated by the Romans, +and became part of Gallia Transpadana. During the Roman +period, besides Forum Julii, its principal towns were Concordia, +Aquileia and Vedinium. On the conquest of the country by +the Lombards during the 6th century it was made one of their +thirty-six duchies, the capital being Forum Julii or, as they +called it, Civitas Austriae. It is needless to repeat the list of +dukes of the Lombard line, from Gisulf (d. 611) to Hrothgaud, +who fell a victim to his opposition to Charlemagne about 776; +their names and exploits may be read in the <i>Historia Langobardorum</i> +of Paulus Diaconus, and they were mainly occupied +in struggles with the Avars and other barbarian peoples, and in +resisting the pretensions of the Lombard kings. The discovery, +however, of Gisulf’s grave at Cividale, in 1874, is an interesting +proof of the historian’s authenticity. Charlemagne filled +Hrothgaud’s place with one of his own followers, and the frontier +position of Friuli gave the new line of counts, dukes or margraves +(for they are variously designated) the opportunity of acquiring +importance by exploits against the Bulgarians, Slovenians and +other hostile peoples to the east. After the death of Charlemagne +Friuli shared in general in the fortunes of northern Italy. +In the 11th century the ducal rights over the greater part of +Friuli were bestowed by the emperor Henry IV. on the patriarch +of Aquileia; but towards the close of the 14th century the nobles +called in the assistance of Venice, which, after defeating the +archbishop, afforded a new illustration of Aesop’s well-known +fable, by securing possession of the country for itself. The +eastern part of Friuli was held by the counts of Görz till 1500, +when on the failure of their line it was appropriated by the +German king, Maximilian I., and remained in the possession of +the house of Austria until the Napoleonic wars. By the peace +of Campo Formio in 1797 the Venetian district also came to +Austria, and on the formation of the Napoleonic kingdom of +Italy in 1805 the department of Passariano was made to include +the whole of Venetian and part of Austrian Friuli, and in 1809 +the rest was added to the Illyrian provinces. The title of duke +of Friuli was borne by Marshal Duroc. In 1815 the whole +country was recovered by the emperor of Austria, who himself +assumed the ducal title and coat of arms; and it was not till +1866 that the Venetian portion was again ceded to Italy by the +peace of Prague. The capital of the country is Udine, and its +arms are a crowned eagle on a field azure.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Manzano, <i>Annali del Friuli</i> (Udine, 1858-1879); and <i>Compendio +di storia friulana</i> (Udine, 1876); Antonini, <i>Il Friuli orientale</i> +(Milan, 1865); von Zahn, <i>Friaulische Studien</i> (Vienna, 1878); +Pirona, <i>Vocabolario friulino</i> (Venice, 1869); and L. Fracassetti, <i>La +Statistica etnografica del Friuli</i> (Udine, 1903).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(T. As.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROBEN<a name="ar74" id="ar74"></a></span> [<span class="sc">Frobenius</span>], <b>JOANNES</b> (<i>c.</i> 1460-1527), German +printer and scholar, was born at Hammelburg in Bavaria +about the year 1460. After completing his university career +at Basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer +Johannes Auerbach (1443-1513), he established a printing house +in that city about 1491, and this soon attained a European +reputation for accuracy and for taste. In 1500 he married the +daughter of the bookseller Wolfgang Lachner, who entered into +partnership with him. He was on terms of friendship with +Erasmus (<i>q.v.</i>), who not only had his own works printed by him, +but superintended Frobenius’s editions of St Jerome, St Cyprian, +Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers and St Ambrose. His <i>Neues +Testament</i> in Greek (1516) was used by Luther for his translation. +Frobenius employed Hans Holbein to illuminate his texts. +It was part of his plan to print editions of the Greek Fathers. +He did not, however, live to carry out this project, but it was +very creditably executed by his son Jerome and his son-in-law +Nikolaus Episcopius. Frobenius died in October 1527. His +work in Basel made that city in the 16th century the leading +centre of the German book trade. An extant letter of Erasmus, +written in the year of Frobenius’s death, gives an epitome +of his life and an estimate of his character; and in it Erasmus +mentions that his grief for the death of his friend was far more +poignant than that which he had felt for the loss of his own +brother, adding that “all the apostles of science ought to wear +mourning.” The epistle concludes with an epitaph in Greek +and Latin.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN<a name="ar75" id="ar75"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> 1535-1594), English navigator +and explorer, fourth child of Bernard Frobisher of Altofts in +the parish of Normanton, Yorkshire, was born some time between +1530 and 1540. The family came originally from North Wales. +At an early age he was sent to a school in London and placed +under the care of a kinsman, Sir John York, who in 1544 placed +him on board a ship belonging to a small fleet of merchantmen +sailing to Guinea. By 1565 he is referred to as Captain Martin +Frobisher, and in 1571-1572 as being in the public service at +sea off the coast of Ireland. He married in 1559. As early as +1560 or 1561 Frobisher had formed a resolution to undertake a +voyage in search of a North-West Passage to Cathay and India. +The discovery of such a route was the motive of most of the +Arctic voyages undertaken at that period and for long after, +but Frobisher’s special merit was in being the first to give to +this enterprise a national character. For fifteen years he solicited +in vain the necessary means to carry his project into execution, +but in 1576, mainly by help of the earl of Warwick, he was put +in command of an expedition consisting of two tiny barks, the +“Gabriel” and “Michael,” of about 20 to 25 tons each, and a +pinnace of 10 tons, with an aggregate crew of 35.</p> + +<p>He weighed anchor at Blackwall, and, after having received +a good word from Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich, set sail on the +7th of June, by way of the Shetland Islands. Stormy weather +was encountered in which the pinnace was lost, and some time +afterwards the “Michael” deserted; but stoutly continuing +the voyage alone, on the 28th of July the “Gabriel” sighted +the coast of Labrador in lat. 62° 2′ N. Some days later the +mouth of Frobisher Bay was reached, and a farther advance +northwards being prevented by ice and contrary winds, Frobisher +determined to sail westward up this passage (which he conceived +to be a strait) to see “whether he mighte carrie himself through +the same into some open sea on the backe syde.” Butcher’s +Island was reached on the 18th of August, and some natives +being met with here, intercourse was carried on with them for +some days, the result being that five of Frobisher’s men were +decoyed and captured, and never more seen. After vainly +trying to get back his men, Frobisher turned homewards, and +reached London on the 9th of October.</p> + +<p>Among the things which had been hastily brought away +by the men was some “black earth,” and just as it seemed +as if nothing more was to come of this expedition, it was +noised abroad that the apparently valueless “black earth” +was really a lump of gold ore. It is difficult to say how +this rumour arose, and whether there was any truth in it, +or whether Frobisher was a party to a deception, in order +to obtain means to carry out the great idea of his life. +The story, at any rate, was so far successful; the greatest +enthusiasm was manifested by the court and the commercial +and speculating world of the time; and next year a much more +important expedition than the former was fitted out, the queen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id="page238"></a>238</span> +lending the “Aid” from the royal navy and subscribing £1000 +towards the expenses of the expedition. A Company of Cathay +was established, with a charter from the crown, giving the +company the sole right of sailing in every direction but the east; +Frobisher was appointed high admiral of all lands and waters +that might be discovered by him. On the 26th of May 1577 the +expedition, consisting, besides the “Aid,” of the ships “Gabriel” +and “Michael,” with boats, pinnaces and an aggregate complement +of 120 men, including miners, refiners, &c., left Blackwall, +and sailing by the north of Scotland reached Hall’s Island +at the mouth of Frobisher Bay on the 17th of July. A few days +later the country and the south side of the bay was solemnly +taken possession of in the queen’s name. Several weeks were now +spent in collecting ore, but very little was done in the way of +discovery, Frobisher being specially directed by his commission +to “defer the further discovery of the passage until another +time.” There was much parleying and some skirmishing with +the natives, and earnest but futile attempts made to recover the +men captured the previous year. The return was begun on the +23rd of August, and the “Aid” reached Milford Haven on the +23rd of September; the “Gabriel” and “Michael,” having +separated, arrived later at Bristol and Yarmouth.</p> + +<p>Frobisher was received and thanked by the queen at Windsor. +Great preparations were made and considerable expense incurred +for the assaying of the great quantity of “ore” (about 200 tons) +brought home. This took up much time, and led to considerable +dispute among the various parties interested. Meantime the +faith of the queen and others remained strong in the productiveness +of the newly discovered territory, which she herself named +<i>Meta Incognita</i>, and it was resolved to send out a larger expedition +than ever, with all necessaries for the establishment of a +colony of 100 men. Frobisher was again received by the queen +at Greenwich, and her Majesty threw a fine chain of gold around +his neck. On the 31st of May 1578 the expedition, consisting in +all of fifteen vessels, left Harwich, and sailing by the English +Channel on the 20th of June reached the south of Greenland, +where Frobisher and some of his men managed to land. On the +2nd of July the foreland of Frobisher Bay was sighted, but +stormy weather and dangerous ice prevented the rendezvous +from being gained, and, besides causing the wreck of the barque +“Dennis” of 100 tons, drove the fleet unwittingly up a new +(Hudson) strait. After proceeding about 60 m. up this “mistaken +strait,” Frobisher with apparent reluctance turned back, and +after many bufferings and separations the fleet at last came to +anchor in Frobisher Bay. Some attempt was made at founding +a settlement, and a large quantity of ore was shipped; but, as +might be expected, there was much dissension and not a little +discontent among so heterogeneous a company, and on the last +day of August the fleet set out on its return to England, which +was reached in the beginning of October. Thus ended what was +little better than a fiasco, though Frobisher himself cannot be +held to blame for the result; the scheme was altogether chimerical, +and the “ore” seems to have been not worth smelting.</p> + +<p>In 1580 Frobisher was employed as captain of one of the +queen’s ships in preventing the designs of Spain to assist the +Irish insurgents, and in the same year obtained a grant of the +reversionary title of clerk of the royal navy. In 1585 he commanded +the “Primrose,” as vice-admiral to Sir F. Drake in his +expedition to the West Indies, and when soon afterwards the +country was threatened with invasion by the Spanish Armada, +Frobisher’s name was one of four mentioned by the lord high +admiral in a letter to the queen of “men of the greatest experience +that this realm hath,” and for his signal services in the +“Triumph,” in the dispersion of the Armada, he was knighted. +He continued to cruise about in the Channel until 1590, when he +was sent in command of a small fleet to the coast of Spain. In +1591 he visited his native Altofts, and there married his second +wife, a daughter of Lord Wentworth, becoming at the same time +a landed proprietor in Yorkshire and Notts. He found, however, +little leisure for a country life, and the following year took +charge of the fleet fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh to the Spanish +coast, returning with a rich prize. In November 1594 he was +engaged with a squadron in the siege and relief of Brest, when +he received a wound at Fort Crozon from which he died at +Plymouth on the 22nd of November. His body was taken to +London and buried at St Giles’, Cripplegate. Though he appears +to have been somewhat rough in his bearing, and too strict a +disciplinarian to be much loved, Frobisher was undoubtedly one +of the most able seamen of his time and justly takes rank among +England’s great naval heroes.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See Hakluyt’s <i>Voyages</i>; the Hakluyt Society’s <i>Three Voyages of +Frobisher</i>; Rev. F. Jones’s <i>Life of Frobisher</i> (1878); Julian Corbett, +<i>Drake and the Tudor Navy</i> (1898).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROCK,<a name="ar76" id="ar76"></a></span> originally a long, loose gown with broad sleeves, more +especially that worn by members of the religious orders. The +word is derived from the O. Fr. <i>froc</i>, of somewhat obscure origin; +in medieval Lat. <i>froccus</i> appears also as <i>floccus</i>, which, if it is the +original, as Du Cange suggests (<i>literula mutata</i>), would connect +the word with “flock” (<i>q.v.</i>), properly a tuft of wool. Another +suggestion refers the word to the German <i>Rock</i>, a coat (cf. +“rochet”), which in some rare instances is found as <i>hrock</i>. The +formal stripping off of the frock became part of the ceremony of +degradation or deprivation in the case of a condemned monk; +hence the expression “to unfrock” (med. Lat. <i>defrocare</i>, Fr. +<i>défroquer</i>) used of the degradation of monks and of priests from +holy orders. In the middle ages “frock” was also used of a long +loose coat worn by men and of a coat of mail, the “frock of mail.” +In something of this sense the word survived into the 19th +century for a coat with long skirts, now called the “frock coat.” +The word in now chiefly used in English for a child’s or young +girl’s dress, of body and skirt, but is frequently used of a woman’s +dress. Du Cange (<i>Glossarium</i>, s.v. <i>flocus</i>) quotes an early use +of the word for a woman’s garment (<i>Miracula S. Udalrici</i>, ap. +Mabillon, <i>Acta Sanctorum Benedict</i>, saec. v. p. 466). Here a +woman, possessed of a devil, is cured, and sends her garments +to the tomb of the saint, and a dalmatic is ordered to be made +out of the flocus or <i>frocus</i>. “Frock” also appears in the “smock +frock,” once the typical outer garment of the English peasant. +It consists of a loose shirt of linen or other material, worn over +the other clothes and hanging to about the knee; its characteristic +feature is the “smocking,” a puckered honeycomb stitching +round the neck and shoulders.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROEBEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST<a name="ar77" id="ar77"></a></span> (1782-1852), +German philosopher, philanthropist and educational reformer, +was born at Oberweissbach, a village of the Thuringian forest, +on the 21st of April 1782. Like Comenius, with whom he had +much in common, he was neglected in his youth, and the remembrance +of his own early sufferings made him in after life +the more eager in promoting the happiness of children. His +mother he lost in his infancy, and his father, the pastor of +Oberweissbach and the surrounding district, attended to his +parish but not to his family. Friedrich soon had a stepmother, +and neglect was succeeded by stepmotherly attention; but a +maternal uncle took pity on him, and gave him a home for some +years at Stadt-Ilm. Here he went to the village school, but like +many thoughtful boys he passed for a dunce. Throughout life +he was always seeking for hidden connexions and an underlying +unity in all things. Nothing of the kind was to be perceived +in the piecemeal studies of the school, and Froebel’s mind, busy +as it was for itself, would not work for the masters. His half-brother +was therefore thought more worthy of a university +education, and Friedrich was apprenticed for two years to a +forester (1797-1799).</p> + +<p>Left to himself in the Thuringian forest, Froebel began to +study nature, and without scientific instruction he obtained a +profound insight into the uniformity and essential unity of +nature’s laws. Years afterwards the celebrated Jahn (the +“Father Jahn” of the German gymnasts) told a Berlin student +of a queer fellow he had met, who made out all sorts of wonderful +things from stones and cobwebs. This queer fellow was Froebel; +and the habit of making out general truths from the observation +of nature, especially from plants and trees, dated from the solitary +rambles in the forest. No training could have been better suited +to strengthen his inborn tendency to mysticism; and when he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>239</span> +left the forest at the early age of seventeen, he seems to have +been possessed by the main ideas which influenced him all his +life. The conception which in him dominated all others was the +unity of nature; and he longed to study natural sciences that +he might find in them various applications of nature’s universal +laws. With great difficulty he got leave to join his elder brother +at the university of Jena, and there for a year he went from +lecture-room to lecture-room hoping to grasp that connexion +of the sciences which had for him far more attraction than any +particular science in itself. But Froebel’s allowance of money +was very small, and his skill in the management of money was +never great, so his university career ended in an imprisonment +of nine weeks for a debt of thirty shillings. He then returned +home with very poor prospects, but much more intent on what +he calls the course of “self-completion” (<i>Vervollkommnung +meines selbst</i>) than on “getting on” in a worldly point of view. +He was sent to learn farming, but was recalled in consequence +of the failing health of his father. In 1802 the father died, and +Froebel, now twenty years old, had to shift for himself. It was +some time before he found his true vocation, and for the next +three and a half years we find him at work now in one part of +Germany now in another—sometimes land-surveying, sometimes +acting as accountant, sometimes as private secretary; but in all +this his “outer life was far removed from his inner life,” and in +spite of his outward circumstances he became more and more +conscious that a great task lay before him for the good of +humanity. The nature of the task, however, was not clear to +him, and it seemed determined by accident. While studying +architecture in Frankfort-on-Main, he became acquainted with +the director of a model school, who had caught some of the +enthusiasm of Pestalozzi. This friend saw that Froebel’s true +field was education, and he persuaded him to give up architecture +and take a post in the model school. In this school Froebel +worked for two years with remarkable success, but he then +retired and undertook the education of three lads of one family. +In this he could not satisfy himself, and he obtained the parents’ +consent to his taking the boys to Yverdon, near Neuchâtel, and +there forming with them a part of the celebrated institution of +Pestalozzi. Thus from 1807 till 1809 Froebel was drinking in +Pestalozzianism at the fountain-head, and qualifying himself to +carry on the work which Pestalozzi had begun. For the science +of education had to deduce from Pestalozzi’s experience principles +which Pestalozzi himself could not deduce. And “Froebel, the +pupil of Pestalozzi, and a genius like his master, completed the +reformer’s system; taking the results at which Pestalozzi had +arrived through the necessities of his position, Froebel developed +the ideas involved in them, not by further experience but by +deduction from the nature of man, and thus he attained to the +conception of true human development and to the requirements +of true education” (Schmidt’s <i>Geschichte der Pädagogik</i>).</p> + +<p>Holding that man and nature, inasmuch as they proceed from +the same source, must be governed by the same laws, Froebel +longed for more knowledge of natural science. Even Pestalozzi +seemed to him not to “honour science in her divinity.” He +therefore determined to continue the university course which +had been so rudely interrupted eleven years before, and in 1811 +he began studying at Göttingen, whence he proceeded to Berlin. +But again his studies were interrupted, this time by the king +of Prussia’s celebrated call “to my people.” Though not a +Prussian, Froebel was heart and soul a German. He therefore +responded to the call, enlisted in Lützow’s corps, and went through +the campaign of 1813. But his military ardour did not take +his mind off education. “Everywhere,” he writes, “as far as +the fatigues I underwent allowed, I carried in my thoughts my +future calling as educator; yes, even in the few engagements +in which I had to take part. Even in these I could gather +experience for the task I proposed to myself.” Froebel’s +soldiering showed him the value of discipline and united action, +how the individual belongs not to himself but to the whole +body, and how the whole body supports the individual.</p> + +<p>Froebel was rewarded for his patriotism by the friendship +of two men whose names will always be associated with his, +Langethal and Middendorff. These young men, ten years +younger than Froebel, became attached to him in the field, and +were ever afterwards his devoted followers, sacrificing all their +prospects in life for the sake of carrying out his ideas.</p> + +<p>At the peace of Fontainebleau (signed in May 1814) Froebel +returned to Berlin, and became curator of the museum of +mineralogy under Professor Weiss. In accepting this appointment +from the government he seemed to turn aside from his +work as educator; but if not teaching he was learning. More +and more the thought possessed him that the one thing needful +for man was unity of development, perfect evolution in accordance +with the laws of his being, such evolution as science discovers +in the other organisms of nature. He at first intended to become +a teacher of natural science, but before long wider views dawned +upon him. Langethal and Middendorff were in Berlin, engaged +in tuition. Froebel gave them regular instruction in his theory, +and at length, counting on their support, he resolved to set +about realizing his own idea of “the new education.” This was +in 1816. Three years before one of his brothers, a clergyman, +had died of fever caught from the French prisoners. His widow +was still living in the parsonage at Griesheim, a village on the +Ilm. Froebel gave up his post, and set out for Griesheim on foot, +spending his very last groschen on the way for bread. Here +he undertook the education of his orphan niece and nephews, +and also of two more nephews sent him by another brother. +With these he opened a school and wrote to Middendorff and +Langethal to come and help in the experiment. Middendorff +came at once, Langethal a year or two later, when the school +had been moved to Keilhau, another of the Thuringian villages, +which became the Mecca of the new faith. In Keilhau Froebel, +Langethal, Middendorff and Barop, a relation of Middendorff’s, +all married and formed an educational community. Such zeal +could not be fruitless, and the school gradually increased, though +for many years its teachers, with Froebel at their head, were in +the greatest straits for money and at times even for food. After +fourteen years’ experience he determined to start other institutions +to work in connexion with the parent institution at Keilhau, +and being offered by a private friend the use of a castle on the +Wartensee, in the canton of Lucerne, he left Keilhau under the +direction of Barop, and with Langethal he opened the Swiss +institution. The ground, however, was very ill chosen. The +Catholic clergy resisted what they considered as a Protestant +invasion, and the experiment on the Wartensee and at Willisau +in the same canton, to which the institution was moved in 1833, +never had a fair chance. It was in vain that Middendorff at +Froebel’s call left his wife and family at Keilhau, and laboured +for four years in Switzerland without once seeing them. The +Swiss institution never flourished. But the Swiss government +wished to turn to account the presence of the great educator; +so young teachers were sent to Froebel for instruction, and +finally Froebel moved to Burgdorf (a Bernese town of some +importance, and famous from Pestalozzi’s labours there thirty +years earlier) to undertake the establishment of a public orphanage +and also to superintend a course of teaching for schoolmasters. +The elementary teachers of the canton were to spend three +months every alternate year at Burgdorf, and there compare +experiences, and learn of distinguished men such as Froebel and +Bitzius. In his conferences with these teachers Froebel found +that the schools suffered from the state of the raw material +brought into them. Till the school age was reached the children +were entirely neglected. Froebel’s conception of harmonious +development naturally led him to attach much importance to +the earliest years, and his great work on <i>The Education of Man</i>, +published as early as 1826, deals chiefly with the child up to the +age of seven. At Burgdorf his thoughts were much occupied +with the proper treatment of young children, and in scheming +for them a graduated course of exercises, modelled on the games +in which he observed them to be most interested. In his eagerness +to carry out his new plans he grew impatient of official restraints; +so he returned to Keilhau, and soon afterwards opened the first +<i>Kindergarten</i> or “Garden of Children,” in the neighbouring village +of Blankenburg (1837). Firmly convinced of the importance of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>240</span> +the Kindergarten for the whole human race, Froebel described +his system in a weekly paper (his <i>Sonntagsblatt</i>) which appeared +from the middle of 1837 till 1840. He also lectured in great +towns; and he gave a regular course of instruction to young +teachers at Blankenburg. But although the principles of the +Kindergarten were gradually making their way, the first Kindergarten +was failing for want of funds. It had to be given up, and +Froebel, now a widower (he had lost his wife in 1839), carried +on his course for teachers first at Keilhau, and from 1848, for +the last four years of his life, at or near Liebenstein, in the +Thuringian forest, and in the duchy of Meiningen. It is in these +last years that the man Froebel will be best known to posterity, +for in 1849 he attracted within the circle of his influence a woman +of great intellectual power, the baroness von Marenholtz-Bülow, +who has given us in her <i>Recollections of Friedrich Froebel</i> the only +lifelike portrait we possess.</p> + +<p>These seemed likely to be Froebel’s most peaceful days. He +married again in 1851, and having now devoted himself to the +training of women as educators, he spent his time in instructing +his class of young female teachers. But trouble came upon him +from a quarter whence he least expected it. In the great year +of revolutions (1848) Froebel had hoped to turn to account the +general eagerness for improvement, and Middendorff had presented +an address on Kindergartens to the German parliament. +Besides this, a nephew of Froebel’s, Professor Karl Froebel of +Zürich, published books which were supposed to teach socialism. +True, the uncle and nephew differed so widely that the “new +Froebelians” were the enemies of “the old,” but the distinction +was overlooked, and Friedrich and Karl Froebel were regarded +as the united advocates of some new thing. In the reaction +which soon set in, Froebel found himself suspected of socialism +and irreligion, and in 1851 the “cultus-minister” Von Raumer +issued an edict forbidding the establishment of schools “after +Friedrich and Karl Froebel’s principles” in Prussia. This was +a heavy blow to the old man, who looked to the government of +the “<i>Cultus-staat</i>” Prussia for support, and was met with denunciation. +Whether from the worry of this new controversy, or from +whatever cause, Froebel did not long survive the decree. His +seventieth birthday was celebrated with great rejoicings in May +1852, but he died on the 21st of June, and was buried at Schweina, +a village near his last abode, Marienthal, near Bad-Liebenstein.</p> + +<p>“All education not founded on religion is unproductive.” +This conviction followed naturally from Froebel’s conception of +the unity of all things, a unity due to the original Unity from +whom all proceed and in whom all “live, move and have their +being.” As man and nature have one origin they must be subject +to the same laws. Hence Froebel, like Comenius two centuries +before him, looked to the course of nature for the principles +of human education. This he declares to be his fundamental +belief: “In the creation, in nature and the order of the material +world, and in the progress of mankind, God has given us the true +type (<i>Urbild</i>) of education.” As the cultivator creates nothing +in the trees and plants, so the educator creates nothing in the +children,—he merely superintends the development of inborn +faculties. So far Froebel agrees with Pestalozzi; but in one +respect he went beyond him. Pestalozzi said that the faculties +were developed by exercise. Froebel added that the function +of education was to develop the faculties by arousing <i>voluntary +activity</i>. Action proceeding from inner impulse (<i>Selbsttätigkeit</i>) +was the one thing needful.</p> + +<p>The prominence which Froebel gave to action, his doctrine +that man is primarily a doer and even a creator, and that he +learns only through “self-activity,” has its importance all +through education. But it was to the first stage of life that +Froebel paid the greatest attention. He held with Rousseau +that each age has a completeness of its own, and that the perfection +of the later stage can be attained only through the +perfection of the earlier. If the infant is what he should be as +an infant, and the child as a child, he will become what he should +be as a boy, just as naturally as new shoots spring from the healthy +plant. Every stage, then, must be cared for and tended in such +a way that it may attain its own perfection. Impressed with the +immense importance of the first stage, Froebel like Pestalozzi +devoted himself to the instruction of mothers. But he would not, +like Pestalozzi, leave the children entirely in the mother’s hands. +Pestalozzi held that the child belonged to the family; Fichte, +on the other hand, claimed it for society and the state. +Froebel, whose mind delighted in harmonizing apparent contradictions, +and who taught that “all progress lay through +opposites to their reconciliation,” maintained that the child +belonged both to the family and to society, and he would therefore +have children spend some hours of the day in a common +life and in well-organized common employments. These +assemblies of children he would not call schools, for the children +in them ought not to be old enough for schooling. So he invented +the name <i>Kindergarten</i>, garden of children, and called +the superintendents “children’s gardeners.” He laid great +stress on every child cultivating its own plot of ground, but this +was not his reason for the choice of the name. It was rather +that he thought of these institutions as enclosures in which +young human plants are nurtured. In the Kindergarten the +children’s employment should be <i>play</i>. But any occupation +in which children delight is play to them; and Froebel invented +a series of employments, which, while they are in this sense +play to the children, have nevertheless, as seen from the adult +point of view, a distinct educational object. This object, as +Froebel himself describes it, is “to give the children employment +in agreement with their whole nature, to strengthen their bodies, +to exercise their senses, to engage their awakening mind, and +through their senses to bring them acquainted with nature and +their fellow creatures; it is especially to guide aright the heart +and the affections, and to lead them to the original ground of all +life, to unity with themselves.”</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>Froebel’s own works are: <i>Menschenerziehung</i> (“Education of +Man”), (1826), which has been translated into French and English; +<i>Pädagogik d. Kindergartens</i>; <i>Kleinere Schriften</i> and <i>Mutter- und +Koselieder</i>; collected editions have been edited by Wichard Lange +(1862) and Friedrich Seidel (1883).</p> + +<p>A. B. Hauschmann’s <i>Friedrich Fröbel</i> is a lengthy and unsatisfactory +biography. An unpretentious but useful little book is +<i>F. Froebel, a Biographical Sketch</i>, by Matilda H. Kriege, New York +(Steiger). A very good account of Froebel’s life and thoughts is +given in Karl Schmidt’s <i>Geschichte d. Pädagogik</i>, vol. iv.; also in +Adalbert Weber’s <i>Geschichte d. Volksschulpäd. u. d. Kleinkindererziehung</i> +(Weber carefully gives authorities). For a less favourable +account see K. Strack’s <i>Geschichte d. deutsch. Volksschulwesens</i>. +Frau von Marenholtz-Bülow published her <i>Erinnerungen an F. Fröbel</i> +(translated by Mrs. Horace Mann, 1877). This lady, the chief interpreter +of Froebel, has expounded his principles in <i>Das Kind u. +sein Wesen</i> and <i>Die Arbeit u. die neue Erziehung</i>. H. Courthope +Bowen has written a memoir (1897) in the “Great Educators” +series. In England Miss Emily A. E. Shirreff has published <i>Principles +of Froebel’s System</i>, and a short sketch of Froebel’s life. See also +Dr Henry Barnard’s <i>Papers on Froebel’s Kindergarten</i> (1881); R. H. +Quick, <i>Educational Reformers</i> (1890).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(R. H. Q.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROG,<a name="ar78" id="ar78"></a></span><a name="fa1f" id="fa1f" href="#ft1f"><span class="sp">1</span></a> a name in zoology, of somewhat wide application, +strictly for an animal belonging to the family <i>Ranidae</i>, but also +used of some other families of the order <i>Ecaudata</i> or the sub-class +Batrachia (<i>q.v.</i>).</p> + +<p>Frogs proper are typified by the common British species, +<i>Rana temporaria</i>, and its allies, such as the edible frog, <i>R. +esculenta</i>, and the American bull-frog <i>R. catesbiana</i>. The genus +<i>Rana</i> may be defined as firmisternal Ecaudata with cylindrical +transverse processes to the sacral vertebra, teeth in the upper +jaw and on the vomer, a protrusible tongue which is free and +forked behind, a horizontal pupil and more or less webbed toes. +It includes about 200 species, distributed over the whole world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>241</span> +with the exception of the greater part of South America and +Australia. Some of the species are thoroughly aquatic and have +fully webbed toes, others are terrestrial, except during the breeding +season, others are adapted for burrowing, by means of the +much-enlarged and sharp-edged tubercle at the base of the inner +toe, whilst not a few have the tips of the digits dilated into disks +by which they are able to climb on trees. In most of the older +classifications great importance was attached to these physiological +characters, and a number of genera were established +which, owing to the numerous annectent forms which have since +been discovered, must be abandoned. The arboreal species +were thus associated with the true tree-frogs, regardless of their +internal structure. We now know that such adaptations are +of comparatively small importance, and cannot be utilized +for establishing groups higher than genera in a natural or +phylogenetic classification. The tree-frogs, <i>Hylidae</i>, with which +the arboreal <i>Ranidae</i> were formerly grouped, show in their +anatomical structure a close resemblance to the toads, <i>Bufonidae</i>, +and are therefore placed far away from the true frogs, however +great the superficial resemblance between them.</p> + +<p>Some frogs grow to a large size. The bull-frog of the eastern +United States and Canada, reaching a length of nearly 8 in. from +snout to vent, long regarded as the giant of the genus, has been +surpassed by the discovery of <i>Rana guppyi</i> (8½ in.) in the +Solomon Islands, and of <i>Rana goliath</i> (10 in.) in South Cameroon.</p> + +<p>The family <i>Ranidae</i> embraces a large number of genera, some +of which are very remarkable. Among these may be mentioned +the hairy frog of West Africa, <i>Trichobatrachus robustus</i>, some +specimens of which have the sides of the body and of the hind +limbs covered with long villosities, the function of which is +unknown, and its ally <i>Gampsosteonyx batesi</i>, in which the last +phalanx of the fingers and toes is sharp, claw-like and perforates +the skin. To this family also belong the <i>Rhacophorus</i> of eastern +Asia, arboreal frogs, some of which are remarkable for the +extremely developed webs between the fingers and toes, which +are believed to act as a parachute when the frog leaps from the +branches of trees (flying-frog of A. R. Wallace), whilst others +have been observed to make aerial nests between leaves overhanging +water, a habit which is shared by their near allies the <i>Chiromantis</i> +of tropical Africa. <i>Dimorphognathus</i>, from West Africa, +is the unique example of a sexual dimorphism in the dentition, +the males being provided with a series of large sharp teeth in the +lower jaw, which in the female, as in most other members of the +family, is edentulous. The curious horned frog of the Solomon +Islands, <i>Ceratobatrachus guentheri</i>, which can hardly be separated +from the <i>Ranidae</i>, has teeth in the lower jaw in both sexes, +whilst a few forms, such as <i>Dendrobates</i> and <i>Cardioglossa</i>, which +on this account have been placed in a distinct family, have no +teeth at all, as in toads. These facts militate strongly against +the importance which was once attached to the dentition in the +classification of the tailless batrachians.</p> + +<hr class="foot" /> <div class="note"> + +<p><a name="ft1f" id="ft1f" href="#fa1f"><span class="fn">1</span></a> The word “frog” is in O.E. <i>frocga</i> or <i>frox</i>, cf. Dutch <i>vorsch</i>, +Ger. <i>Frosch</i>; Skeat suggests a possible original source in the root +meaning “to jump,” “to spring,” cf. Ger. <i>froh</i>, glad, joyful and +“frolic.” The term is also applied to the following objects: the +horny part in the center of a horse’s hoof; an attachment to a belt +for suspending a sword, bayonet, &c.; a fastening for the front +of a coat, still used in military uniforms, consisting of two buttons +on opposite sides joined by ornamental looped braids; and, in railway +construction, the point where two rails cross. These may be +various transferred applications of the name of the animal, but the +“frog” of a horse was also called “frush,” probably a corruption of +the French name <i>fourchette</i>, lit. little fork. The ornamental braiding +is also more probably due to “frock,” Lat. <i>floccus</i>.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROG-BIT,<a name="ar79" id="ar79"></a></span> in botany, the English name for a small floating +herb known botanically as <i>Hydrocharis Morsus-Ranae</i>, a member +of the order Hydrocharideae, a family of Monocotyledons. The +plant has rosettes of roundish floating leaves, and multiplies +like the strawberry plant by means of runners, at the end +of which new leaf-rosettes develop. Staminate and pistillate +flowers are borne on different plants; they have three small +green sepals and three broadly ovate white membranous petals. +The fruit, which is fleshy, is not found in Britain. The plant +occurs in ponds and ditches in England and is rare in Ireland.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROGMORE,<a name="ar80" id="ar80"></a></span> a mansion within the royal demesne of Windsor, +England, in the Home Park, 1 m. S.E. of Windsor Castle. It +was occupied by George III.’s queen, Charlotte, and later by +the duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria, who died here +in 1861. The mansion, a plain building facing a small lake, has +in its grounds the mausoleum of the duchess of Kent and the +royal mausoleum. The first is a circular building surrounded +with Ionic columns and rising in a dome, a lower chamber within +containing the tomb, while in the upper chamber is a statue of the +duchess. There is also a bust of Princess Hohenlohe-Langenberg, +half-sister of Queen Victoria; and before the entrance is a +memorial erected by the queen to Lady Augusta Stanley (d. +1876), wife of Dean Stanley. The royal mausoleum, a cruciform +building with a central octagonal lantern, richly adorned within +with marbles and mosaics, was erected (1862-1870) by Queen +Victoria over the tomb of Albert, prince consort, by whose side +the queen herself was buried in 1901. There are also memorials +to Princess Alice and Prince Leopold in the mausoleum. To +the south of the mansion are the royal gardens and dairy.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRÖHLICH, ABRAHAM EMANUEL<a name="ar81" id="ar81"></a></span> (1796-1865), Swiss poet, +was born on the 1st of February 1796 at Brugg in the canton of +Aargau, where his father was a teacher. After studying theology +at Zürich he became a pastor in 1817 and returned as teacher +to his native town, where he lived for ten years. He was then +appointed professor of the German language and literature in +the cantonal school at Aarau, which post he lost, however, in +the political quarrels of 1830. He afterwards obtained the post +of teacher and rector of the cantonal college, and was also +appointed assistant minister at the parish church. He died at +Baden in Aargau on the 1st of December 1865. His works are—<i>170 +Fabeln</i> (1825); <i>Schweizerlieder</i> (1827); <i>Das Evangelium +St Johannis, in Liedern</i> (1830); <i>Elegien an Wieg’ und Sarg</i> +(1835); <i>Die Epopöen; Ulrich Zwingli</i> (1840); <i>Ulrich von +Hutten</i> (1845); <i>Auserlesene Psalmen und geistliche Lieder für +die Evangelisch-reformirte Kirche des Cantons Aargau</i> (1844); +<i>Über den Kirchengesang der Protestanten</i> (1846); <i>Trostlieder</i> +(1852); <i>Der Junge Deutsch-Michel</i> (1846); <i>Reimsprüche aus +Staat, Schule, und Kirche</i> (1820). An edition of his collected +works, in 5 vols., was published at Frauenfeld in 1853. Fröhlich +is best known for his two heroic poems, <i>Ulrich Zwingli</i> and +<i>Ulrich von Hutten</i>, and especially for his fables, which have been +ranked with those of Hagedorn, Lessing and Gellert.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See the <i>Life</i> by R. Fäsi (Zürich, 1907).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROHSCHAMMER, JAKOB<a name="ar82" id="ar82"></a></span> (1821-1893), German theologian +and philosopher, was born at Illkofen, near Regensburg, on the +6th of January 1821. Destined by his parents for the Roman +Catholic priesthood, he studied theology at Munich, but felt +an ever-growing attraction to philosophy. Nevertheless, after +much hesitation, he took what he himself calls the most mistaken +step of his life, and in 1847 entered the priesthood. His keenly +logical intellect, and his impatience of authority where it clashed +with his own convictions, quite unfitted him for that unquestioning +obedience which the Church demanded. It was only after +open defiance of the bishop of Regensburg that he obtained +permission to continue his studies at Munich. He at first devoted +himself more especially to the study of the history of dogma, +and in 1850 published his <i>Beiträge zur Kirchengeschichte</i>, which +was placed on the Index Expurgatorius. But he felt that his +real vocation was philosophy, and after holding for a short time +an extraordinary professorship of theology, he became professor +of philosophy in 1855. This appointment he owed chiefly to his +work, <i>Über den Ursprung der menschlichen Seelen</i> (1854), in +which he maintained that the human soul was not implanted +by a special creative act in each case, but was the result of a +secondary creative act on the part of the parents: that soul as +well as body, therefore, was subject to the laws of heredity. +This was supplemented in 1855 by the controversial <i>Menschenseele +und Physiologie</i>. Undeterred by the offence which these works +gave to his ecclesiastical superiors, he published in 1858 the +<i>Einleitung in die Philosophie und Grundriss der Metaphysik</i>, +in which he assailed the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, that +philosophy was the handmaid of theology. In 1861 appeared +<i>Über die Aufgabe der Naturphilosophie und ihr Verhältnis zur +Naturwissenschaft</i>, which was, he declared, directed against the +purely mechanical conception of the universe, and affirmed the +necessity of a creative Power. In the same year he published +<i>Über die Freiheit der Wissenschaft</i>, in which he maintained the +independence of science, whose goal was truth, against authority, +and reproached the excessive respect for the latter in the Roman +Church with the insignificant part played by the German Catholics +in literature and philosophy. He was denounced by the pope +himself in an apostolic brief of the 11th of December 1862, +and students of theology were forbidden to attend his lectures. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>242</span> +Public opinion was now keenly excited; he received an ovation +from the Munich students, and the king, to whom he owed his +appointment, supported him warmly. A conference of Catholic +<i>savants</i>, held in 1863 under the presidency of Döllinger, decided +that authority must be supreme in the Church. When, however, +Döllinger and his school in their turn started the Old Catholic +movement, Frohschammer refused to associate himself with +their cause, holding that they did not go far enough, and that +their declaration of 1863 had cut the ground from under their +feet. Meanwhile he had, in 1862, founded the <i>Athenäum</i> as the +organ of Liberal Catholicism. For this he wrote the first adequate +account in German of the Darwinian theory of natural selection, +which drew a warm letter of appreciation from Darwin himself. +Excommunicated in 1871, he replied with three articles, which +were reproduced in thousands as pamphlets in the chief European +languages: <i>Der Fels Petri in Rom</i> (1873), <i>Der Primat Petri +und des Papstes</i> (1875), and <i>Das Christenthum Christi und das +Christenthum des Papstes</i> (1876). In <i>Das neue Wissen und der +neue Glaube</i> (1873) he showed himself as vigorous an opponent +of the materialism of Strauss as of the doctrine of papal infallibility. +His later years were occupied with a series of philosophical +works, of which the most important were: <i>Die Phantasie als +Grundprincip des Weltprocesses</i> (1877), <i>Über die Genesis der +Menschheit und deren geistige Entwicklung in Religion, Sittlichkeit +und Sprache</i> (1883), and <i>Über die Organisation und Cultur der +menschlichen Gesellschaft</i> (1885). His system is based on the +unifying principle of imagination (<i>Phantasie</i>), which he extends +to the objective creative force of Nature, as well as to the subjective +mental phenomena to which the term is usually confined. +He died at Bad Kreuth in the Bavarian Highlands on the 14th +of June 1893.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>In addition to other treatises on theological subjects, Frohschammer +was also the author of <i>Monaden und Weltphantasie</i> and <i>Über die +Bedeutung der Einbildungskraft in der Philosophie Kants und Spinozas</i> +(1879); <i>Über die Principien der Aristotelischen Philosophie und die +Bedeutung der Phantasie in derselben</i> (1881); <i>Die Philosophie als +Idealwissenschaft und System</i> (1884); <i>Die Philosophie des Thomas +von Aquino kritisch gewürdigt</i> (1889); <i>Über das Mysterium Magnum +des Daseins</i> (1891); <i>System der Philosophie im Umriss</i>, pt. i. (1892). +His autobiography was published in A. Hinrichsen’s <i>Deutsche Denker</i> +(1888). See also F. Kirchner, <i>Über das Grundprincip des Weltprocesses</i> +(1882), with special reference to F.; E. Reich, <i>Weltanschauung +und Menschenleben; Betrachtungen über die Philosophie +J. Frohschammers</i> (1894); B. Münz, <i>J. Frohschammer, der Philosoph +der Weltphantasie</i> (1894) and <i>Briefe von und über J. Frohschammer</i> +(1897); J. Friedrich, <i>Jakob Frohschammer</i> (1896) and <i>Systematische +und kritische Darstellung der Psychologie J. Frohschammers</i> (1899); +A. Attensperger, <i>J. Frohschammers philosophisches System im +Grundriss</i> (1899).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROISSART, JEAN<a name="ar83" id="ar83"></a></span> (1338-1410?), French chronicler and +raconteur, historian of his own times. The personal history +of Froissart, the circumstances of his birth and education, the +incidents of his life, must all be sought in his own verses and +chronicles. He possessed in his own lifetime no such fame as +that which attended the steps of Petrarch; when he died it did +not occur to his successors that a chapter might well be added +to his <i>Chronicle</i> setting forth what manner of man he was who +wrote it. The village of Lestines, where he was curé, has long +forgotten that a great writer ever lived there. They cannot +point to any house in Valenciennes as the lodging in which he +put together his notes and made history out of personal reminiscences. +It is not certain when or where he died, or where he +was buried. One church, it is true, doubtfully claims the honour +of holding his bones. It is that of St Monegunda of Chimay.</p> + +<table class="reg f90" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr"> +<p>“Gallorum sublimis honos et fama tuorum,</p> +<p class="i05">Hic Froissarde, jaces, si modo forte jaces.”</p> +</div> </td></tr></table> + +<p class="noind">It is fortunate, therefore, that the scattered statements in his +writings may be so pieced together as to afford a tolerably +connected history of his life year after year. The personality +of the man, independently of his adventures, may be arrived at +by the same process. It will be found that Froissart, without +meaning it, has portrayed himself in clear and well-defined +outline. His forefathers were <i>jurés</i> (aldermen) of the little +town of Beaumont, lying near the river Sambre, to the west of the +forest of Ardennes. Early in the 14th century the castle and +seigneurie of Beaumont fell into the hands of Jean, younger son +of the count of Hainaut. With this Jean, sire de Beaumont, +lived a certain canon of Liège called Jean le Bel, who fortunately +was not content simply to enjoy life. Instigated by his seigneur +he set himself to write contemporary history, to tell “la pure +veriteit de tout li fait entièrement al manire de chroniques.” +With this view, he compiled two books of chronicles. And the +chronicles of Jean le Bel were not the only literary monuments +belonging to the castle of Beaumont. A hundred years before +him Baldwin d’Avernes, the then seigneur, had caused to be +written a book of chronicles or rather genealogies. It must +therefore be remembered that when Froissart undertook his own +chronicles he was not conceiving a new idea, but only following +along familiar lines.</p> + +<p>Some 20 m. from Beaumont stood the prosperous city of +Valenciennes, possessed in the 14th century of important +privileges and a flourishing trade, second only to places like +Bruges or Ghent in influence, population and wealth. Beaumont, +once her rival, now regarded Valenciennes as a place where the +ambitious might seek for wealth or advancement, and among +those who migrated thither was the father of Foissart. He +appears from a single passage in his son’s verses to have been a +painter of armorial bearings. There was, it may be noted, +already what may be called a school of painters at Valenciennes. +Among them were Jean and Colin de Valenciennes and Andrè +Beau-Neveu, of whom Froissart says that he had not his equal +in any country.</p> + +<p>The date generally adopted for his birth is 1338. In after +years Froissart pleased himself by recalling in verse the scenes +and pursuits of his childhood. These are presented in vague +generalities. There is nothing to show that he was unlike any +other boys, and, unfortunately, it did not occur to him that a +photograph of a schoolboy’s life amid bourgeois surroundings +would be to posterity quite as interesting as that faithful portraiture +of courts and knights which he has drawn up in his +<i>Chronicle</i>. As it is, we learn that he loved games of dexterity +and skill rather than the sedentary amusements of chess and +draughts, that he was beaten when he did not know his lessons, +that with his companions he played at tournaments, and that +he was always conscious—a statement which must be accepted +with suspicion—that he was born</p> + +<p class="center f90">“Loer Dieu et servir le monde.”</p> + +<p>In any case he was born in a place, as well as at a time, singularly +adapted to fill the brain of an imaginative boy. Valenciennes +was then a city extremely rich in romantic associations. Not +far from its walls was the western fringe of the great forest of +Ardennes, sacred to the memory of Pepin, Charlemagne, Roland +and Ogier. Along the banks of the Scheldt stood, one after the +other, not then in ruins, but bright with banners, the gleam of +armour, and the liveries of the men at arms, castles whose +seigneurs, now forgotten, were famous in their day for many a +gallant feat of arms. The castle of Valenciennes itself was +illustrious in the romance of <i>Perceforest</i>. There was born that +most glorious and most luckless hero, Baldwin, first emperor +of Constantinople. All the splendour of medieval life was to +be seen in Froissart’s native city: on the walls of the Salle le +Comte glittered—perhaps painted by his father—the arms and +scutcheons beneath the banners and helmets of Luxembourg, +Hainaut and Avesnes; the streets were crowded with knights +and soldiers, priests, artisans and merchants; the churches were +rich with stained glass, delicate tracery and precious carving; +there were libraries full of richly illuminated manuscripts on +which the boy could gaze with delight; every year there was the +<i>fête</i> of the <i>puy d’Amour de Valenciennes</i>, at which he would hear +the verses of the competing poets; there were festivals, masques, +mummeries and moralities. And, whatever there might be +elsewhere, in this happy city there was only the pomp, and not +the misery, of war; the fields without were tilled, and the +harvests reaped, in security; the workman within plied his +craft unmolested for good wage. But the eyes of the boy were +turned upon the castle and not upon the town; it was the +splendour of the knights which dazzled him, insomuch that he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>243</span> +regarded and continued ever afterwards to regard a prince +gallant in the field, glittering of apparel, lavish of largesse, as +almost a god.</p> + +<p>The moon, he says, rules the first four years of life; Mercury +the next ten; Venus follows. He was fourteen when the last +goddess appeared to him in person, as he tells us, after the +manner of his time, and informed him that he was to love a lady, +“belle, jone, et gente.” Awaiting this happy event, he began to +consider how best to earn his livelihood. They first placed him in +some commercial position—impossible now to say of what kind—which +he simply calls “la marchandise.” This undoubtedly +means some kind of buying and selling, not a handicraft +at all. He very soon abandoned merchandise—“car vaut +mieux science qu’argens”—and resolved on becoming a learned +clerk. He then naturally began to make verses, like every other +learned clerk. Quite as naturally, and still in the character of a +learned clerk, he fulfilled the prophecy of Venus and fell in love. +He found one day a demoiselle reading a book of romances. He +did not know who she was, but stealing gently towards her, he +asked her what book she was reading. It was the romance of +<i>Cleomades</i>. He remarks the singular beauty of her blue eyes +and fair hair, while she reads a page or two, and then—one would +almost suspect a reminiscence of Dante—</p> + +<p class="center f90">“Adont laissames nous le lire.”</p> + +<p class="noind">He was thus provided with that essential for soldier, knight +or poet, a mistress—one for whom he could write verses. She +was rich and he was poor; she was nobly born and he obscure; +it was long before she would accept the devotion, even of the +conventional kind which Froissart offered her, and which would +in no way interfere with the practical business of her life. And +in this hopeless way, the passion of the young poet remaining +the same, and the coldness of the lady being unaltered, the course +of this passion ran on for some time. Nor was it until the day +of Froissart’s departure from his native town that she gave him +an interview and spoke kindly to him, even promising, with tears +in her eyes, that “Doulce Pensée” would assure him that she +would have no joyous day until she should see him again.</p> + +<p>He was eighteen years of age; he had learned all that he +wanted to learn; he possessed the mechanical art of verse; +he had read the slender stock of classical literature accessible; +he longed to see the world. He must already have acquired +some distinction, because, on setting out for the court of England, +he was able to take with him letters of recommendation from +the king of Bohemia and the count of Hainaut to Queen Philippa, +niece of the latter. He was well received by the queen, always +ready to welcome her own countrymen; he wrote ballades and +virelays for her and her ladies. But after a year he began to +pine for another sight of “la très douce, simple, et quoie,” whom +he loved loyally. Good Queen Philippa, perceiving his altered +looks and guessing the cause, made him confess that he was in +love and longed to see his mistress. She gave him his <i>congé</i> on +the condition that he was to return. It is clear that the young +clerk had already learned to ingratiate himself with princes.</p> + +<p>The conclusion of his single love adventure is simply and +unaffectedly told in his <i>Trettie de l’espinette amoureuse</i>. It +was a passion conducted on the well-known lines of conventional +love; the pair exchanged violets and roses, the lady accepted +ballads; Froissart became either openly or in secret her recognized +lover, a mere title of honour, which conferred distinction +on her who bestowed it, as well as upon him who received it. +But the progress of the amour was rudely interrupted by the arts +of “Malebouche,” or Calumny. The story, whatever it was, +that Malebouche whispered in the ear of the lady led to a +complete rupture. The <i>damoiselle</i> not only scornfully refused +to speak to her lover or acknowledge him, but even seized him +by the hair and pulled out a handful. Nor would she ever +be reconciled to him again. Years afterwards, when Froissart +writes the story of his one love passage, he shows that he still +takes delight in the remembrance of her, loves to draw her +portrait, and lingers with fondness over the thought of what +she once was to him.</p> + +<p>Perhaps to get healed of his sorrow, Froissart began those +wanderings in which the best part of his life was to be consumed. +He first visited Avignon, perhaps to ask for a benefice, perhaps +as the bearer of a message from the bishop of Cambray to pope +or cardinal. It was in the year 1360, and in the pontificate of +Innocent VI. From the papal city he seems to have gone to +Paris, perhaps charged with a diplomatic mission. In 1361 he +returned to England after an absence of five years. He certainly +interpreted his leave of absence in a liberal spirit, and it may have +been with a view of averting the displeasure of his kind-hearted +protector that he brought with him as a present a book of +rhymed chronicles written by himself. He says that notwithstanding +his youth, he took upon himself the task “à rimer et +à dicter”—which can only mean to “turn into verse”—an +account of the wars of his own time, which he carried over to +England in a book “tout compilé,”—complete to date,—and +presented to his noble mistress Philippa of Hainaut, who joyfully +and gently received it of him. Such a rhymed chronicle +was no new thing. One Colin had already turned the battle of +Crécy into verse. The queen made young Froissart one of her +secretaries, and he began to serve her with “beaux dittiés et +traités amoureux.”</p> + +<p>Froissart would probably have been content to go on living +at ease in this congenial atmosphere of flattery, praise and +caresses, pouring out his virelays and chansons according to +demand with facile monotony, but for the instigation of Queen +Philippa, who seems to have suggested to him the propriety of +travelling in order to get information for more rhymed chronicles. +It was at her charges that Froissart made his first serious journey. +He seems to have travelled a great part of the way alone, or +accompanied only by his servants, for he was fain to beguile +the journey by composing an imaginary conversation in verse +between his horse and his hound. This may be found among his +published poems, but it does not repay perusal. In Scotland +he met with a favourable reception, not only from King David +but from William of Douglas, and from the earls of Fife, +Mar, March and others. The souvenirs of this journey are +found scattered about in the chronicles. He was evidently much +impressed with the Scots; he speaks of the valour of the Douglas, +the Campbell, the Ramsay and the Graham; he describes the +hospitality and rude life of the Highlanders; he admires the +great castles of Stirling and Roxburgh and the famous abbey of +Melrose. His travels in Scotland lasted for six months. Returning +southwards he rode along the whole course of the Roman +wall, a thing alone sufficient to show that he possessed the true +spirit of an archaeologist; he thought that Carlisle was Carlyon, +and congratulated himself on having found King Arthur’s +capital; he calls Westmorland, where the common people still +spoke the ancient British tongue, North Wales; he rode down +the banks of the Severn, and returned to London by way of +Oxford—“l’escole d’Asque-Suffort.”</p> + +<p>In London Froissart entered into the service of King John +of France as secretary, and grew daily more courtly, more in +favour with princes and great ladies. He probably acquired at +this period that art, in which he has probably never been surpassed, +of making people tell him all they knew. No newspaper +correspondent, no American interviewer, has ever equalled this +medieval collector of intelligence. From Queen Philippa, who +confided to him the tender story of her youthful and lasting love +for her great husband, down to the simplest knight—Froissart +conversed with none beneath the rank of gentlemen—all united +in telling this man what he wanted to know. He wanted to +know everything: he liked the story of a battle from both sides +and from many points of view; he wanted the details of every +little cavalry skirmish, every capture of a castle, every gallant +action and brave deed. And what was more remarkable, he +forgot nothing. “I had,” he says, “thanks to God, sense, +memory, good remembrance of everything, and an intellect +clear and keen to seize upon the acts which I could learn.” But +as yet he had not begun to write in prose.</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-nine, in 1366, Froissart once more left +England. This time he repaired first to Brussels, whither were +gathered together a great concourse of minstrels from all parts, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>244</span> +from the courts of the kings of Denmark, Navarre and Aragon, +from those of the dukes of Lancaster, Bavaria and Brunswick. +Hither came all who could “rimer et dicter.” What distinction +Froissart gained is not stated; but he received a gift of money, +as appears from the accounts: “uni Fritsardo, dictori, qui est +cum regina Angliae, dicto die, <span class="sc">VI.</span> mottones.”</p> + +<p>After this congress of versifiers, he made his way to Brittany, +where he heard from eye-witnesses and knights who had actually +fought there details of the battles of Cocherel and Auray, the +Great Day of the Thirty and the heroism of Jeanne de Montfort. +Windsor Herald told him something about Auray, and a French +knight, one Antoine de Beaujeu, gave him the details of Cocherel. +From Brittany he went southwards to Nantes, La Rochelle and +Bordeaux, where he arrived a few days before the visit of Richard, +afterwards second of that name. He accompanied the Black +Prince to Dax, and hoped to go on with him into Spain, but +was despatched to England on a mission. He next formed part +of the expedition which escorted Lionel duke of Clarence to +Milan, to marry the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti. Chaucer +was also one of the prince’s suite. At the wedding banquet +Petrarch was a guest sitting among the princes.</p> + +<p>From Milan Froissart, accepting gratefully a <i>cotte hardie</i> with +20 florins of gold, set out upon his travels in Italy. At Bologna, +then in decadence, he met Peter king of Cyprus, from whose +follower and minister, Eustache de Conflans, he learned many +interesting particulars of the king’s exploits. He accompanied +Peter as far as Venice, where he left him after receiving a gift +of 40 ducats. With them and his <i>cotte hardie</i>, still lined we may +hope with the 20 florins, Froissart betook himself to Rome. +The city was then at its lowest point: the churches were roofless; +there was no pope; there were no pilgrims; there was no +splendour; and yet, says Froissart sadly,</p> + +<table class="reg" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr"> +<p class="i2">“Ce furent jadis en Rome</p> +<p>Li plus preu et li plus sage homme,</p> +<p>Car par sens tons les arts passèrent.”</p> +</div> </td></tr></table> + +<p class="noind">It was at Rome that he learned of the death of his friend King +Peter of Cyprus, and, worse still, an irreparable loss to him, +that of the good Queen Philippa, of whom he writes, in grateful +remembrance—</p> + +<table class="reg" summary="poem"><tr><td> <div class="poemr"> +<p>“Propices li soit Diex à l’âme!</p> +<p class="i05">J’en suis bien tenus de pryer</p> +<p class="i05">Et ses larghesces escuyer,</p> +<p class="i05">Car elle me fist et créa.”</p> +</div> </td></tr></table> + +<p>Philippa dead, Froissart looked around for a new patron. +Then he hastened back to his own country and presented himself, +with a new book in French, to the duchess of Brabant, from +whom he received the sum of 16 francs, given in the accounts +as paid <i>uni Frissardo dictatori</i>. The use of the word <i>uni</i> does +not imply any meanness of position, but is simply an equivalent +to the modern French <i>sieur</i>. Froissart may also have found a +patron in Yolande de Bar, grandmother of King René of Anjou. +In any case he received a substantial gift from some one in the +shape of the benefice of Lestines, a village some three or four +miles from the town of Binche. Also, in addition to his cure, he +got placed upon the duke of Brabant’s pension list, and was +entitled to a yearly grant of grain and wine, with some small +sum in money.</p> + +<p>It is clear, from Froissart’s own account of himself, that he +was by no means a man who would at the age of four or five and +thirty be contented to sit down at ease to discharge the duties +of parish priest, to say mass, to bury the dead, to marry the +villagers and to baptize the young. In those days, and in that +country, it does not seem that other duties were expected. +Preaching was not required, godliness of life, piety, good works, +and the graces of a modern ecclesiastic were not looked for. +Therefore, when Froissart complains to himself that the taverns +of Lestines got 500 francs of his money, we need not at once set +him down as either a bad priest or exceptionally given to drink. +The people of the place were greatly addicted to wine; the +<i>taverniers de Lestines</i> proverbially sold good wine; the Flemings +were proverbially of a joyous disposition—</p> + +<p class="center f90">“Ceux de Hainaut chantent à pleines gorges.”</p> + +<p class="noind">Froissart, the parish priest of courtly manners, no doubt +drank with the rest, and listened if they sang his own, not the +coarse country songs. Mostly he preferred the society of Gerard +d’Obies, provost of Binche, and the little circle of knights within +that town. Or—for it was not incumbent on him to be always +in residence—he repaired to the court of Coudenberg, and became +“moult frère et accointé” with the duke of Brabant. And then +came Gui de Blois, one of King John’s hostages in London in the +old days. He had been fighting in Prussia with the Teutonic +knights, and now, a little tired of war, proposed to settle down +for a time in his castle of Beaumont. This prince was a member +of the great house of Chatillon. He was count of Blois, of +Soissons and of Chimay. He had now, about the year 1374, an +excellent reputation as a good captain. In him Froissart, who +hastened to resume acquaintance, found a new patron. More +than that, it was this sire de Beaumont, in emulation of his +grandfather, the patron of Jean le Bel, who advised Froissart +seriously to take in hand the history of his own time. Froissart +was then in his thirty-sixth year. For twenty years he had been +rhyming, for eighteen he had been making verses for queens and +ladies. Yet during all this time he had been accumulating in his +retentive brain the materials for his future work.</p> + +<p>He began by editing, so to speak, that is, by rewriting with +additions, the work of Jean le Bel; Gui de Blois, among others, +supplied him with additional information. His own notes, taken +from information obtained in his travels, gave him more details, +and when in 1374 Gui married Marie de Namur, Froissart found +in the bride’s father, Robert de Namur, one who had himself +largely shared in the events which he had to relate. He, for +instance, is the authority for the story of the siege of Calais +and the six burgesses. Provided with these materials, Froissart +remained at Lestines, or at Beaumont, arranging and writing +his chronicles. During this period, too, he composed his <i>Espinette +amoureuse</i>, and the <i>Joli Buisson de jonesce</i>, and his romance of +<i>Méliador</i>. He also became chaplain to the count of Blois, and +obtained a canonry of Chimay. After this appointment we hear +nothing more of Lestines, which he probably resigned.</p> + +<p>In these quiet pursuits he passed twelve years, years of which +we hear nothing, probably because there was nothing to tell. +In 1386 his travels began again, when he accompanied Gui to +his castle at Blois, in order to celebrate the marriage of his son +Louis de Dunois with Marie de Berry. He wrote a <i>pastourelle</i> +in honour of the event. Then he attached himself for a few days +to the duke of Berry, from whom he learned certain particulars +of current events, and then, becoming aware of what promised to +be the most mighty feat of arms of his time, he hastened to Sluys +in order to be on the spot. At this port the French were collecting +an enormous fleet, and making preparations of the greatest +magnitude in order to repeat the invasion of William the Conqueror. +They were tired of being invaded by the English and +wished to turn the tables. The talk was all of conquering the +country and dividing it among the knights, as had been done by +the Normans. It is not clear whether Froissart intended to go +over with the invaders; but as his sympathies are ever with the +side where he happens to be, he exhausts himself in admiration +of this grand gathering of ships and men. “Any one,” he says, +“who had a fever would have been cured of his malady merely +by going to look at the fleet.” But the delays of the duke of +Berry, and the arrival of bad weather, spoiled everything. There +was no invasion of England. In Flanders Froissart met many +knights who had fought at Rosebeque, and could tell him of the +troubles which in a few years desolated that country, once so +prosperous. He set himself to ascertain the history with as +much accuracy as the comparison of various accounts by eye-witnesses +and actors would allow. He stayed at Ghent, among +those ruined merchants and mechanics, for whom, as one of the +same class, he felt a sympathy never extended to English or +French, perhaps quite as unfortunate, and he devotes no fewer +than 300 chapters to the Flemish troubles, an amount out of +all proportion to the comparative importance of the events. +This portion of the chronicle was written at Valenciennes. +During this residence in his birthplace his verses were crowned +at the “puys d’amour” of Valenciennes and Tournay.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id="page245"></a>245</span></p> + +<p>This part of his work finished, he considered what to do next. +There was small chance of anything important happening in +Picardy or Hainault, and he determined on making a journey +to the south of France in order to learn something new. He was +then fifty-one years of age, and being still, as he tells us, in his +prime, “of an age, strength, and limbs able to bear fatigue,” +he set out as eager to see new places as when, 33 years before, +he rode through Scotland and marvelled at the bravery of the +Douglas. What he had, in addition to strength, good memory +and good spirits, was a manner singularly pleasing and great +personal force of character. This he does not tell us, but it +comes out abundantly in his writings; and, which he does tell +us, he took a singular delight in his book. “The more I work +at it,” he says, “the better am I pleased with it.”</p> + +<p>On this occasion he rode first to Blois; on the way he fell in +with two knights who told him of the disasters of the English +army in Spain; one of them also informed him of the splendid +hospitalities and generosity of Gaston Phoebus, count of Foix, +on hearing of which Froissart resolved to seek him out. He +avoided the English provinces of Poitou and Guienne, and rode +southwards through Berry, Auvergne and Languedoc. Arrived +at Foix he discovered that the count was at Orthez, whither he +proceeded in company with a knight named Espaing de Lyon, +who, Froissart found, had not only fought, but could describe.</p> + +<p>The account of those few days’ ride with Espaing de Lyon is +the most charming, the most graphic, and the most vivid chapter +in the whole of Froissart. Every turn of the road brings with +it the sight of a ruined castle, about which this knight of many +memories has a tale or a reminiscence. The whole country +teems with fighting stories. Froissart never tires of listening +nor the good knight of telling. “Sainte Marie!” cries Froissart +in mere rapture. “How pleasant are your tales, and how much +do they profit me while you relate them! And you shall not lose +your trouble, for they shall all be set down in memory and remembrance +in the history which I am writing.” Arrived at length +at Orthez, Froissart lost no time in presenting his credentials to +the count of Foix. Gaston Phoebus was at this time fifty-nine +years of age. His wife, from whom he was separated, was that +princess, sister of Charles of Navarre, with whom Guillaume de +Machault carried on his innocent and poetical amour. The story +of the miserable death of his son is well known, and may be read +in Froissart. But that was already a tale of the past, and the +state which the count kept up was that of a monarch. To such a +prince such a visitor as Froissart would be in every way welcome. +Mindful no doubt of those paid clerks who were always writing +verses, Froissart introduced himself as a chronicler. He could, +of course, rhyme, and in proof he brought with him his romance +of <i>Méliador</i>; but he did not present himself as a wandering +poet. The count received him graciously, speedily discovered +the good qualities of his guest, and often invited him to read his +<i>Méliador</i> aloud in the evening, during which time, says Froissart, +“nobody dared to say a word, because he wished me to be heard, +such great delight did he take in listening.” Very soon Froissart, +from reader of a romance, became raconteur of the things he had +seen and heard; the next step was that the count himself began +to talk of affairs, so that the notebook was again in requisition. +There was a good deal, too, to be learned of people about the +court. One knight recently returned from the East told about +the Genoese occupation of Famagosta; two more had been in the +fray of Otterbourne; others had been in the Spanish wars.</p> + +<p>Leaving Gaston at length, Froissart assisted at the wedding +of the old duke of Berry with the youthful Jeanne de Bourbon, +and was present at the grand reception given to Isabeau of +Bavaria by the Parisians. He then returned to Valenciennes, +and sat down to write his fourth book. A journey undertaken +at this time is characteristic of the thorough and conscientious +spirit in which he composed his work; it illustrates also his +restless and curious spirit. While engaged in the events of the +year 1385 he became aware that his notes taken at Orthez and +elsewhere on the affairs of Castile and Portugal were wanting in +completeness. He left Valenciennes and hastened to Bruges, +where, he felt certain, he should find some one who would help +him. There was, in fact, at this great commercial centre, a +colony of Portuguese. From them he learned that a certain +Portuguese knight, Dom Juan Fernand Pacheco, was at the +moment in Middelburg on the point of starting for Prussia. +He instantly embarked at Sluys, reached Middelburg in time +to catch this knight, introduced himself, and conversed with him +uninterruptedly for the space of six days, getting his information +on the promise of due acknowledgment. During the next two +years we learn little of his movements. He seems, however, +to have had trouble with his seigneur Gui de Blois, and even to +have resigned his chaplaincy. Froissart is tender with Gui’s +reputation, mindful of past favours and remembering how great +a lord he is. Yet the truth is clear that in his declining years +the once gallant Gui de Blois became a glutton and a drunkard, +and allowed his affairs to fall into the greatest disorder. So +much was he crippled with debt that he was obliged to sell his +castle and county of Blois to the king of France. Froissart lays +all the blame on evil counsellors. “He was my lord and master,” +he says simply, “an honourable lord and of great reputation; +but he trusted too easily in those who looked for neither his +welfare nor his honour.” Although canon of Chimay and perhaps +curé of Lestines as well, it would seem as if Froissart was not able +to live without a patron. He next calls Robert de Namur his +seigneur, and dedicates to him, in a general introduction, the +whole of his chronicles. We then find him at Abbeville, trying +to learn all about the negotiations pending between Charles VI. +and the English. He was unsuccessful, either because he could +not get at those who knew what was going on, or because the +secret was too well kept. He next made his last visit to England, +where, after forty years’ absence, he naturally found no one +who remembered him. Here he gave King Richard a copy of his +“traités amoureux,” and got favour at court. He stayed in +England some months, seeking information on all points from +his friends Henry Chrystead and Richard Stury, from the dukes +of York and Gloucester, and from Robert the Hermit.</p> + +<p>On his return to France, he found preparations going on +for that unlucky crusade, the end of which he describes in his +<i>Chronicle</i>. It was headed by the count of Nevers. After him +floated many a banner of knights, descendants of the crusaders, +who bore the proud titles of duke of Athens, duke of Thebes, +sire de Sidon, sire de Jericho. They were going to invade the +sultan’s empire by way of Hungary; they were going to march +south; they would reconquer the holy places. And presently +we read how it all came to nothing, and how the slaughtered +knights lay dead outside the city of Nikopoli. In almost the +concluding words of the <i>Chronicle</i> the murder of Richard II. +of England is described. His death ends the long and crowded +<i>Chronicle</i>, though the pen of the writer struggles through a few +more unfinished sentences.</p> + +<p>The rest is vague tradition. He is said to have died at Chimay; +it is further said that he died in poverty so great that his relations +could not even afford to carve his name upon the headstone of +his tomb; not one of his friends, not even Eustache Deschamps, +writes a line of regret in remembrance; the greatest historian +of his age had a reputation so limited that his death was no +more regarded than that of any common monk or obscure +priest. We would willingly place the date of his death, where +his <i>Chronicle</i> stops, in the year 1400; but tradition assigns +the date of 1410. What date more fitting than the close of the +century for one who has made that century illustrious for ever?</p> + +<p>Among his friends were Guillaume de Machault, Eustache +Deschamps, the most vigorous poet of this age of decadence, +and Cuvelier, a follower of Bertrand du Guesclin. These alliances +are certain. It is probable that he knew Chaucer, with whom +Deschamps maintained a poetical correspondence; there is +nothing to show that he ever made the acquaintance of Christine +de Pisan. Froissart was more proud of his poetry than his prose. +Posterity has reversed this opinion, and though a selection of +his verse has been published, it would be difficult to find an +admirer, or even a reader, of his poems. The selection published +by Buchon in 1829 consists of the <i>Dit dou florin</i>, half of which +is a description of the power of money; the <i>Débat dou cheval</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>246</span> +<i>et dou lévrier</i>, written during his journey in Scotland; the +<i>Dittie de la flour de la Margherite</i>; a <i>Dittie d’amour</i> called +<i>L’Orlose amoureus</i>, in which he compares himself, the imaginary +lover, with a clock; the <i>Espinette amoureuse</i>, which contains a +sketch of his early life, freely and pleasantly drawn, accompanied +by rondeaux and virelays; the <i>Buisson de jonesce</i>, in which +he returns to the recollections of his own youth; and various +smaller pieces. The verses are monotonous; the thoughts are +not without poetical grace, but they are expressed at tedious +length. It would be, however, absurd to expect in Froissart +the vigour and verve possessed by none of his predecessors. +The time was gone when Marie de France, Rutebœuf and +Thibaut de Champagne made the 13th-century language a +medium for verse of which any literature might be proud. +Briefly, Froissart’s poetry, unless the unpublished portion +be better than that before us, is monotonous and mechanical. +The chief merit it possesses is in simplicity of diction. This not +infrequently produces a pleasing effect.</p> + +<p>As for the character of his <i>Chronicle</i>, little need be said. +There has never been any difference of opinion on the distinctive +merits of this great work. It presents a vivid and faithful +drawing of the things done in the 14th century. No more +graphic account exists of any age. No historian has drawn +so many and such faithful portraits. They are, it is true, portraits +of men as they seemed to the writer, not of men as they were. +Froissart was uncritical; he accepted princes by their appearance. +Who, for instance, would recognize in his portrait of Gaston +Phoebus de Foix the cruel voluptuary, stained with the blood +of his own son, which we know him to have been? Froissart, +again, had no sense of historical responsibility; he was no +judge to inquire into motives and condemn actions; he was +simply a chronicler. He has been accused by French authors +of lacking patriotism. Yet it must be remembered that he was +neither a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but a Fleming. He +has been accused of insensibility to suffering. Indignation +against oppression was not, however, common in the 14th +century; why demand of Froissart a quality which is rare +enough even in our own time? Yet there are moments when, +as in describing the massacre of Limoges, he speaks with tears +in his voice.</p> + +<p>Let him be judged by his own aims. “Before I commence +this book,” he says, “I pray the Saviour of all the world, who +created every thing out of nothing, that He will also create and +put in me sense and understanding of so much worth, that this +book, which I have begun, I may continue and persevere in, +so that all those who shall read, see, and hear it may find in it +delight and pleasance.” To give delight and pleasure, then, +was his sole design.</p> + +<p>As regards his personal character, Froissart depicts it himself +for us. Such as he was in youth, he tells us, so he remained in +more advanced life; rejoicing mightily in dances and carols, +in hearing minstrels and poems; inclined to love all those who +love dogs and hawks; pricking up his ears at the uncorking of +bottles,—“Car au voire prens grand plaisir”; pleased with +good cheer, gorgeous apparel and joyous society, but no commonplace +reveller or greedy voluptuary,—everything in Froissart +was ruled by the good manners which he set before all else; +and always eager to listen to tales of war and battle. As we have +said above, he shows, not only by his success at courts, but also +by the whole tone of his writings, that he possessed a singularly +winning manner and strong personal character. He lived +wholly in the present, and had no thought of the coming changes. +Born when chivalrous ideas were most widely spread, but the +spirit of chivalry itself, as inculcated by the best writers, in its +decadence, he is penetrated with the sense of knightly honour, +and ascribes to all his heroes alike those qualities which only the +ideal knight possessed.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The first edition of Froissart’s Chronicles was published in Paris. +It bears no date; the next editions are those of the years 1505, 1514, +1518 and 1520. The edition of Buchon, 1824, was a continuation +of one commenced by Dacier. The best modern editions are those +of Kervyn de Lettenhove (Brussels, 1863-1877) and Siméon Luce +(Paris, 1869-1888); for bibliography see Potthast, <i>Bibliotheca hist. +medii aevi</i>, i. (Berlin, 1896). An abridgment was made in Latin by +Belleforest, and published in 1672. An English translation was +made by Bouchier, Lord Berners, and published in London, 1525. +See the “Tudor Translations” edition of Berners (Nutt, 1901), +with introduction by W. P. Ker; and the “Globe” edition, with +introduction by G. C. Macaulay. The translation by Thomas +Johnes was originally published in 1802-1805. For Froissart’s +poems see Scheler’s text in K. de Lettenhove’s complete edition; +<i>Méliador</i> has been edited by Longnon for the Société des Anciens +Textes (1895-1899). See also Madame Darmesteter (Duclaux), +<i>Froissart</i> (1894).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(W. Be.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROME,<a name="ar84" id="ar84"></a></span> a market town in the Frome parliamentary division +of Somersetshire, England, 107 m. W. by S. of London by the +Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 11,057. It +is unevenly built on high ground above the river Frome, which +is here crossed by a stone bridge of five arches. It was formerly +called Frome or Froome Selwood, after the neighbouring forest +of Selwood; and the country round is still richly wooded and +picturesque. The parish church of St John the Baptist, with +its fine tower and spire, was built about the close of the 14th +century, and, though largely restored, has a beautiful chancel, +Lady chapel and baptistery. Fragments of Norman work are +left; the interior is elaborately adorned with sculptures and +stained glass. The market-hall, museum, school of art, and a +free grammar school, founded under Edward VI., may be noted +among buildings and institutions. The chief industries are +brewing and art metal-working, also printing, metal-founding, +and the manufacture of cloth, silk, tools and cards for wool-dressing. +Dairy farming is largely practised in the neighbourhood. +Selwood forest was long a favourite haunt of brigands, +and even in the 18th century gave shelter to a gang of coiners and +highwaymen.</p> + +<p>The Saxon occupation of Frome (From) is the earliest of +which there is evidence, the settlement being due to the foundation +of a monastery by Aldhelm in 705. A witenagemot was +held there in 934, so that Frome must already have been a place +of some size. At the time of the Domesday Survey the manor +was owned by King William. Local tradition asserts that +Frome was a medieval borough, and the reeve of Frome is +occasionally mentioned in documents after the reign of Edward +I., but there is no direct evidence that Frome was a borough and +no trace of any charter granted to it. It was not represented +in parliament until given one member by the Reform Act of +1832. Separate representation ceased in 1885. Frome was +never incorporated. A charter of Henry VII. to Edmund +Leversedge, then lord of the manor, granted the right to have +fairs on the 22nd of July and the 21st of September. In the +18th century two other fairs on the 24th of February and the +25th of November were held. Cattle fairs are now held on the +last Wednesday in February and November, and a cheese fair +on the last Wednesday in September. The Wednesday market +is held under the charter of Henry VII. There is also a Saturday +cattle market. The manufacture of woollen cloth has been +established since the 15th century, Frome being the only Somerset +town in which this staple industry has flourished continuously.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROMENTIN, EUGÈNE<a name="ar85" id="ar85"></a></span> (1820-1876), French painter, was +born at La Rochelle in December 1820. After leaving school +he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape +painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters +of Algeria, having been able, while quite young, to visit the +land and people that suggested the subjects of most of his +works, and to store his memory as well as his portfolio with the +picturesque and characteristic details of North African life. In +1849 he obtained a medal of the second class. In 1852 he paid +a second visit to Algeria, accompanying an archaeological +mission, and then completed that minute study of the scenery +of the country and of the habits of its people which enabled him +to give to his after-work the realistic accuracy that comes from +intimate knowledge. In a certain sense his works are not more +artistic results than contributions to ethnological science. His +first great success was produced at the Salon of 1847, by the +“Gorges de la Chiffa.” Among his more important works are—“La +Place de la brèche à Constantine” (1849); “Enterrement +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page247" id="page247"></a>247</span> +Maure” (1853); “Bateleurs nègres” and “Audience chez un +chalife” (1859); “Berger kabyle” and “Courriers arabes” +(1861); “Bivouac arabe,” “Chasse au faucon,” “Fauconnier +arabe” (now at Luxembourg) (1863); “Chasse au héron” +(1865); “Voleurs de nuit” (1867); “Centaurs et arabes +attaqués par une lionne” (1868); “Halte de muletiers” (1869); +“Le Nil” and “Un Souvenir d’Esneh” (1875). Fromentin was +much influenced in style by Eugène Delacroix. His works are +distinguished by striking composition, great dexterity of handling +and brilliancy of colour. In them is given with great +truth and refinement the unconscious grandeur of barbarian +and animal attitudes and gestures. His later works, however, +show signs of an exhausted vein and of an exhausted spirit, +accompanied or caused by physical enfeeblement. But it must +be observed that Fromentin’s paintings show only one side of +a genius that was perhaps even more felicitously expressed in +literature, though of course with less profusion. “Dominique,” +first published in the <i>Revue des deux mondes</i> in 1862, and +dedicated to George Sand, is remarkable among the fiction +of the century for delicate and imaginative observation and for +emotional earnestness. Fromentin’s other literary works are—<i>Visites +artistiques</i> (1852); <i>Simples Pèlerinages</i> (1856); <i>Un Été +dans le Sahara</i> (1857); <i>Une Année dans le Sahel</i> (1858); and +<i>Les Maîtres d’autrefois</i> (1876). In 1876 he was an unsuccessful +candidate for the Academy. He died suddenly at La Rochelle +on the 27th of August 1876.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROMMEL, GASTON<a name="ar86" id="ar86"></a></span> (1862-1906), Swiss theologian, professor +of theology in the university of Geneva from 1894 to 1906. +An Alsatian by birth, he belonged mainly to French Switzerland, +where he spent most of his life. He may best be described as +continuing the spirit of Vinet (<i>q.v.</i>) amid the mental conditions +marking the end of the 19th century. Like Vinet, he derived +his philosophy of religion from a peculiarly deep experience of +the Gospel of Christ as meeting the demands of the moral consciousness; +but he developed even further than Vinet the +psychological analysis of conscience and the method of verifying +every doctrine by direct reference to spiritual experience. Both +made much of moral individuality or personality as the crown +and criterion of reality, believing that its correlation with +Christianity, both historically and philosophically, was most +intimate. But while Vinet laid most stress on the liberty from +human authority essential to the moral consciousness, the +changed needs of the age caused Frommel to develop rather the +aspect of man’s dependence as a moral being upon God’s spiritual +initiative, “the conditional nature of his liberty.” “Liberty +is not the primary, but the secondary characteristic” of conscience; +“before being free, it is the subject of obligation.” +On this depends its objectivity as a real revelation of the Divine +Will. Thus he claimed that a deeper analysis carried one beyond +the human subjectivity of even Kant’s categorical imperative, +since consciousness of obligation was “une expérience imposée +sous le mode de l’absolu.” By his use of <i>imposée</i> Frommel +emphasized the priority of man’s sense of obligation to his +consciousness either of self or of God. Here he appealed to the +current psychology of the subconscious for confirmation of his +analysis, by which he claimed to transcend mere intellectualism. +In his language on this fundamental point he was perhaps too +jealous of admitting an ideal element as implicit in the feeling +of obligation. Still he did well in insisting on priority to self-conscious +thought as a mark of metaphysical objectivity in the +case of moral, no less than of physical experience. Further, he +found in the Christian revelation the same characteristics as +belonged to the universal revelation involved in conscience, +viz. God’s sovereign initiative and his living action in history. +From this standpoint he argued against a purely psychological +type of religion (<i>agnosticisme religieux</i>, as he termed it)—a +tendency to which he saw even in A. Sabatier and the <i>symbolo-fidéisme</i> +of the Paris School—as giving up a real and unifying +faith. His influence on men, especially the student class, was +greatly enhanced by the religious force and charm of his personality. +Finally, like Vinet, he was a man of letters and a +penetrating critic of men and systems.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p><span class="sc">Literature.</span>—G. Godet, <i>Gaston Frommel</i> (Neuchâtel, 1906), a +compact sketch, with full citation of sources; cf. H. Bois, in <i>Sainte-Croix</i> +for 1906, for “L’Étudiant et le professeur.” A complete +edition of his writings was begun in 1907.</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(J. V. B.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRONDE, THE,<a name="ar87" id="ar87"></a></span> the name given to a civil war in France +which lasted from 1648 to 1652, and to its sequel, the war with +Spain in 1653-59. The word means a sling, and was applied to +this contest from the circumstance that the windows of Cardinal +Mazarin’s adherents were pelted with stones by the Paris mob. +Its original object was the redress of grievances, but the movement +soon degenerated into a factional contest among the nobles, +who sought to reverse the results of Richelieu’s work and to +overthrow his successor Mazarin. In May 1648 a tax levied on +judicial officers of the parlement of Paris was met by that body, +not merely with a refusal to pay, but with a condemnation of +earlier financial edicts, and even with a demand for the acceptance +of a scheme of constitutional reforms framed by a committee +of the parlement. This charter was somewhat influenced +by contemporary events in England. But there is no real +likeness between the two revolutions, the French parlement +being no more representative of the people than the Inns of +Court were in England. The political history of the time is +dealt with in the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">France</a></span>: <i>History</i>, the present article +being concerned chiefly with the military operations of what +was perhaps the most costly and least necessary civil war in +history.</p> + +<p>The military record of the first or “parliamentary” Fronde +is almost blank. In August 1648, strengthened by the news +of Condé’s victory at Lens, Mazarin suddenly arrested the +leaders of the parlement, whereupon Paris broke into insurrection +and barricaded the streets. The court, having no army at its +immediate disposal, had to release the prisoners and to promise +reforms, and fled from Paris on the night of the 22nd of October. +But the signing of the peace of Westphalia set free Condé’s +army, and by January 1649 it was besieging Paris. The peace +of Rueil was signed in March, after little blood had been shed. +The Parisians, though still and always anti-cardinalist, refused +to ask for Spanish aid, as proposed by their princely and noble +adherents, and having no prospect of military success without +such aid, submitted and received concessions. Thenceforward +the Fronde becomes a story of sordid intrigues and half-hearted +warfare, losing all trace of its first constitutional phase. The +leaders were discontented princes and nobles—Monsieur (Gaston +of Orléans, the king’s uncle), the great Condé and his brother +Conti, the duc de Bouillon and his brother Turenne. To these +must be added Gaston’s daughter, Mademoiselle de Montpensier +(La grande Mademoiselle), Condé’s sister, Madame de Longueville, +Madame de Chevreuse, and the astute intriguer Paul de +Gondi, later Cardinal de Retz. The military operations fell +into the hands of war-experienced mercenaries, led by two +great, and many second-rate, generals, and of nobles to whom +war was a polite pastime. The feelings of the people at large +were enlisted on neither side.</p> + +<p>This peace of Rueil lasted until the end of 1649. The princes, +received at court once more, renewed their intrigues against +Mazarin, who, having come to an understanding with Monsieur, +Gondi and Madame de Chevreuse, suddenly arrested Condé, +Conti and Longueville (January 14, 1650). The war which +followed this <i>coup</i> is called the “Princes’ Fronde.” This time +it was Turenne, before and afterwards the most loyal soldier +of his day, who headed the armed rebellion. Listening to the +promptings of his Egeria, Madame de Longueville, he resolved +to rescue her brother, his old comrade of Freiburg and Nördlingen. +It was with Spanish assistance that he hoped to do so; +and a powerful army of that nation assembled in Artois under the +archduke Leopold, governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands. +But the peasants of the country-side rose against the invaders, +the royal army in Champagne was in the capable hands of César +de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin, who counted fifty-two +years of age and thirty-six of war experience, and the little +fortress of Guise successfully resisted the archduke’s attack. +Thereupon, however, Mazarin drew upon Plessis-Praslin’s army +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>248</span> +for reinforcements to be sent to subdue the rebellion in the +south, and the royal general had to retire. Then, happily for +France, the archduke decided that he had spent sufficient of +the king of Spain’s money and men in the French quarrel. +The magnificent regular army withdrew into winter quarters, +and left Turenne to deliver the princes with a motley host of +Frondeurs and Lorrainers. Plessis-Praslin by force and bribery +secured the surrender of Rethel on the 13th of December 1650, +and Turenne, who had advanced to relieve the place, fell back +hurriedly. But he was a terrible opponent, and Plessis-Praslin +and Mazarin himself, who accompanied the army, had many +misgivings as to the result of a lost battle. The marshal chose +nevertheless to force Turenne to a decision, and the battle of +Blanc-Champ (near Somme-Py) or Rethel was the consequence. +Both sides were at a standstill in strong positions, Plessis-Praslin +doubtful of the trustworthiness of his cavalry, Turenne too weak +to attack, when a dispute for precedence arose between the +<i>Gardes françaises</i> and the <i>Picardie</i> regiment. The royal infantry +had to be rearranged in order of regimental seniority, and +Turenne, seeing and desiring to profit by the attendant disorder, +came out of his stronghold and attacked with the greatest vigour. +The battle (December 15, 1650) was severe and for a time doubtful, +but Turenne’s Frondeurs gave way in the end, and his army, +as an army, ceased to exist. Turenne himself, undeceived as to +the part he was playing in the drama, asked and received the +young king’s pardon, and meantime the court, with the <i>maison +du roi</i> and other loyal troops, had subdued the minor risings +without difficulty (March-April 1651). Condé, Conti and +Longueville were released, and by April 1651 the rebellion had +everywhere collapsed. Then followed a few months of hollow +peace and the court returned to Paris. Mazarin, an object of +hatred to all the princes, had already retired into exile. “Le +temps est un galant homme,” he remarked, “laissons le faire!” +and so it proved. His absence left the field free for mutual +jealousies, and for the remainder of the year anarchy reigned +in France. In December 1651 Mazarin returned with a small +army. The war began again, and this time Turenne and Condé +were pitted against one another. After the first campaign, as +we shall see, the civil war ceased, but for several other campaigns +the two great soldiers were opposed to one another, Turenne as +the defender of France, Condé as a Spanish invader. Their +personalities alone give threads of continuity to these seven years +of wearisome manœuvres, sieges and combats, though for a +right understanding of the causes which were to produce the +standing armies of the age of Louis XIV. and Frederick the Great +the military student should search deeply into the material and +moral factors that here decided the issue.</p> + +<p>The début of the new Frondeurs took place in Guyenne +(February-March 1652), while their Spanish ally, the archduke +Leopold William, captured various northern fortresses. On the +Loire, whither the centre of gravity was soon transferred, the +Frondeurs were commanded by intriguers and quarrelsome +lords, until Condé’s arrival from Guyenne. His bold trenchant +leadership made itself felt in the action of Bléneau (7th April +1652), in which a portion of the royal army was destroyed, but +fresh troops came up to oppose him, and from the skilful dispositions +made by his opponents Condé felt the presence of +Turenne and broke off the action. The royal army did likewise. +Condé invited the commander of Turenne’s rearguard to supper, +chaffed him unmercifully for allowing the prince’s men to surprise +him in the morning, and by way of farewell remarked to his +guest, “Quel dommage que des braves gens comme nous se +coupent la gorge pour un faquin”—an incident and a remark +that thoroughly justify the iron-handed absolutism of Louis XIV. +There was no hope for France while tournaments on a large +scale and at the public’s expense were fashionable amongst the +<i>grands seigneurs</i>. After Bléneau both armies marched to Paris +to negotiate with the parlement, de Retz and Mlle de Montpensier, +while the archduke took more fortresses in Flanders, and Charles +IV., duke of Lorraine, with an army of plundering mercenaries, +marched through Champagne to join Condé. As to the latter, +Turenne manœuvred past Condé and planted himself in front +of the mercenaries, and their leader, not wishing to expend his +men against the old French regiments, consented to depart with +a money payment and the promise of two tiny Lorraine fortresses. +A few more manœuvres, and the royal army was able to hem in +the Frondeurs in the Faubourg St Antoine (2nd July 1652) with +their backs to the closed gates of Paris. The royalists attacked +all along the line and won a signal victory in spite of the knightly +prowess of the prince and his great lords, but at the critical +moment Gaston’s daughter persuaded the Parisians to open the +gates and to admit Condé’s army. She herself turned the guns +of the Bastille on the pursuers. An insurrectional government +was organized in the capital and proclaimed Monsieur lieutenant-general +of the realm. Mazarin, feeling that public opinion was +solidly against him, left France again, and the bourgeois of Paris, +quarrelling with the princes, permitted the king to enter the city +on the 21st of October 1652. Mazarin returned unopposed in +February 1653.</p> + +<p>The Fronde as a civil war was now over. The whole country, +wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, came to look +to the king’s party as the party of order and settled government, +and thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of +Louis XIV. The general war continued in Flanders, Catalonia +and Italy wherever a Spanish and a French garrison were face +to face, and Condé with the wreck of his army openly and +definitely entered the service of the king of Spain. The “Spanish +Fronde” was almost purely a military affair and, except for a +few outstanding incidents, a dull affair to boot. In 1653 France +was so exhausted that neither invaders nor defenders were able +to gather supplies to enable them to take the field till July. At +one moment, near Péronne, Condé had Turenne at a serious +disadvantage, but he could not galvanize the Spanish general +Count Fuensaldana, who was more solicitous to preserve his +master’s soldiers than to establish Condé as mayor of the palace +to the king of France, and the armies drew apart again without +fighting. In 1654 the principal incident was the siege and relief +of Arras. On the night of the 24th-25th August the lines of +circumvallation drawn round that place by the prince were +brilliantly stormed by Turenne’s army, and Condé won equal +credit for his safe withdrawal of the besieging corps under cover +of a series of bold cavalry charges led by himself as usual, sword +in hand. In 1655 Turenne captured the fortresses of Landrecies, +Condé and St Ghislain. In 1656 the prince of Condé revenged +himself for the defeat of Arras by storming Turenne’s circumvallation +around Valenciennes (16th July), but Turenne drew off +his forces in good order. The campaign of 1657 was uneventful, +and is only to be remembered because a body of 6000 British +infantry, sent by Cromwell in pursuance of his treaty of alliance +with Mazarin, took part in it. The presence of the English +contingent and its very definite purpose of making Dunkirk a +new Calais, to be held by England for ever, gave the next campaign +a character of certainty and decision which is entirely +wanting in the rest of the war. Dunkirk was besieged promptly +and in great force, and when Don Juan of Austria and Condé +appeared with the relieving army from Furnes, Turenne advanced +boldly to meet him. The battle of the Dunes, fought on the +14th of June 1658, was the first real trial of strength since the +battle of the Faubourg St Antoine. Successes on one wing were +compromised by failure on the other, but in the end Condé drew +off with heavy losses, the success of his own cavalry charges +having entirely failed to make good the defeat of the Spanish +right wing amongst the Dunes. Here the “red-coats” made +their first appearance on a continental battlefield, under the +leadership of Sir W. Lockhart, Cromwell’s ambassador at Paris, +and astonished both armies by the stubborn fierceness of their +assaults, for they were the products of a war where passions +ran higher and the determination to win rested on deeper foundations +than in the <i>dégringolade</i> of the feudal spirit in which they +now figured. Dunkirk fell, as a result of the victory, and flew +the St George’s cross till Charles II. sold it to the king of France. +A last desultory campaign followed in 1659—the twenty-fifth +year of the Franco-Spanish War—and the peace of the Pyrenees +was signed on the 5th of November. On the 27th of January +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id="page249"></a>249</span> +1660 the prince asked and obtained at Aix the forgiveness of +Louis XIV. The later careers of Turenne and Condé as the +great generals—and obedient subjects—of their sovereign are +described in the article <span class="sc"><a href="#artlinks">Dutch Wars</a></span>.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>For the many memoirs and letters of the time see the list in +G. Monod’s <i>Bibliographie de l’histoire de France</i> (Paris, 1888). The +<i>Lettres du cardinal Mazarin</i> have been collected in nine volumes +(Paris, 1878-1906). See P. Adolphe Chéruel, <i>Histoire de France +pendant la minorité de Louis XIV</i> (4 vols., 1879-1880), and his +<i>Histoire de France sous le ministère de Mazarin</i> (3 vols., 1883); +L. C. de Beaupoil de Sainte-Aulaire, <i>Histoire de la Fronde</i> (2nd ed., +2 vols., 1860); “Arvède Barine” (Mme Charles Vincens), <i>La +Jeunesse de la grande mademoiselle</i> (Paris, 1902); Duc d’Aumale, +<i>Histoire des princes de Condé</i> (Paris, 1889-1896, 7 vols.). The most +interesting account of the military operations is in General Hardy +de Périni’s <i>Turenne et Condé</i> (<i>Batailles françaises</i>, vol. iv.).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRONTENAC ET PALLUAU, LOUIS DE BUADE,<a name="ar88" id="ar88"></a></span> <span class="sc">Comte de</span> +(1620-1698), French-Canadian statesman, governor and lieutenant-general +for the French king in <i>La Nouvelle France</i> +(Canada), son of Henri de Buade, colonel in the regiment of +Navarre, was born in the year 1620. The details of his early +life are meagre, as no trace of the Frontenac papers has been +discovered. The de Buades, however, were a family of distinction +in the principality of Béarn. Antoine de Buade, seigneur de +Frontenac, grandfather of the future governor of Canada, attained +eminence as a councillor of state under Henri IV.; and his +children were brought up with the dauphin, afterwards Louis +XIII. Louis de Buade entered the army at an early age. In +the year 1635 he served under the prince of Orange in Holland, +and fought with credit and received many wounds during +engagements in the Low Countries and in Italy. He was promoted +to the rank of colonel in the regiment of Normandy in +1643, and three years later, after distinguishing himself at the +siege of Orbitello, where he had an arm broken, he was made +<i>maréchal de camp</i>. His service seems to have been continuous +until the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia in 1648, when he +returned to his father’s house in Paris and married, without the +consent of her parents, Anne de la Grange-Trianon, a girl of +great beauty, who later became the friend and confidante of +Madame de Montpensier. The marriage was not a happy one, +and after the birth of a son incompatibility of temper led to a +separation, the count retiring to his estate on the Indre, where +by an extravagant course of living he became hopelessly involved +in debt. Little is known of his career for the next fifteen years +beyond the fact that he held a high position at court; but in +the year 1669, when France sent a contingent to assist the +Venetians in the defence of Crete against the Turks, Frontenac +was placed in command of the troops on the recommendation of +Turenne. In this expedition he won military glory; but his +fortune was not improved thereby.</p> + +<p>At this period the affairs of New France claimed the attention +of the French court. From the year 1665 the colony had been +successfully administered by three remarkable men—Daniel de +Rémy de Courcelle, the governor, Jèan Talon, the intendant, +and the marquis de Tracy, who had been appointed lieutenant-general +for the French king in America; but a difference of +opinion had arisen between the governor and the intendant, and +each had demanded the other’s recall in the public interest. +At this crisis in the administration of New France, Frontenac +was appointed to succeed de Courcelle. The new governor +arrived in Quebec on the 12th of September 1672. From the +commencement it was evident that he was prepared to give +effect to a policy of colonial expansion, and to exercise an independence +of action that did not coincide with the views of the +monarch or of his minister Colbert. One of the first acts of the +governor, by which he sought to establish in Canada the three +estates—nobles, clergy and people—met with the disapproval +of the French court, and measures were adopted to curb his +ambition by increasing the power of the sovereign council and +by reviving the office of intendant. Frontenac, however, was +a man of dominant spirit, jealous of authority, prepared to exact +obedience from all and to yield to none. In the course of events +he soon became involved in quarrels with the intendant touching +questions of precedence, and with the ecclesiastics, one or two +of whom ventured to criticize his proceedings. The church in +Canada had been administered for many years by the religious +orders; for the see of Quebec, so long contemplated, had not yet +been erected. But three years after the arrival of Frontenac a +former vicar apostolic, François Xavier de Laval de Montmorenci, +returned to Quebec as bishop, with a jurisdiction over +the whole of Canada. In this redoubtable churchman the +governor found a vigorous opponent who was determined to +render the state subordinate to the church. Frontenac, following +in this respect in the footsteps of his predecessors, had issued +trading licences which permitted the sale of intoxicants. The +bishop, supported by the intendant, endeavoured to suppress +this trade and sent an ambassador to France to obtain remedial +action. The views of the bishop were upheld and henceforth +authority was divided. Troubles ensued between the governor +and the sovereign council, most of the members of which sided +with the one permanent power in the colony—the bishop; +while the suspicions and intrigues of the intendant, Duchesneau, +were a constant source of vexation and strife. As the king and +his minister had to listen to and adjudicate upon the appeals +from the contending parties their patience was at last worn out, +and both governor and intendant were recalled to France in +the year 1682. During Frontenac’s first administration many +improvements had been made in the country. The defences +had been strengthened, a fort was built at Cataraqui (now +Kingston), Ontario, bearing the governor’s name, and conditions +of peace had been fairly maintained between the Iroquois on +the one hand and the French and their allies, the Ottawas and +the Hurons, on the other. The progress of events during the +next few years proved that the recall of the governor had been +ill-timed. The Iroquois were assuming a threatening attitude +towards the inhabitants, and Frontenac’s successor, La Barre, +was quite incapable of leading an army against such cunning +foes. At the end of a year La Barre was replaced by the marquis +de Denonville, a man of ability and courage, who, though he +showed some vigour in marching against the western Iroquois +tribes, angered rather than intimidated them, and the massacre +of Lachine (5th of August 1689) must be regarded as one of the +unhappy results of his administration.</p> + +<p>The affairs of the colony were now in a critical condition; a +man of experience and decision was needed to cope with the +difficulties, and Louis XIV., who was not wanting in sagacity, +wisely made choice of the choleric count to represent and uphold +the power of France. When, therefore, on the 15th of October +1689, Frontenac arrived in Quebec as governor for the second +time, he received an enthusiastic welcome, and confidence was +at once restored in the public mind. Quebec was not long to +enjoy the blessing of peace. On the 16th of October 1690 +several New England ships under the command of Sir William +Phipps appeared off the Island of Orleans, and an officer was +sent ashore to demand the surrender of the fort. Frontenac, +bold and fearless, sent a defiant answer to the hostile admiral, +and handled so vigorously the forces he had collected as completely +to repulse the enemy, who in their hasty retreat left +behind a few pieces of artillery on the Beauport shore. The +prestige of the governor was greatly increased by this event, and +he was prepared to follow up his advantage by an attack on +Boston from the sea, but his resources were inadequate for the +undertaking. New France now rejoiced in a brief respite from +her enemies, and during the interval Frontenac encouraged the +revival of the drama at the Château St-Louis and paid some +attention to the social life of the colony. The Indians, however, +were not yet subdued, and for two years a petty warfare was +maintained. In 1696 Frontenac decided to take the field against +the Iroquois, although at this time he was seventy-six years of +age. On the 6th of July he left Lachine at the head of a considerable +force for the village of the Onondagas, where he arrived +a month later. In the meantime the Iroquois had abandoned +their villages, and as pursuit was impracticable the army commenced +its return march on the 10th of August. The old warrior +endured the fatigue of the march as well as the youngest soldier, +and for his courage and prowess he received the cross of St +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id="page250"></a>250</span> +Louis. Frontenac died on the 28th of November 1698 at the +Château St-Louis after a brief illness, deeply mourned by the +Canadian people. The faults of the governor were those of +temperament, which had been fostered by early environment. +His nature was turbulent, and from his youth he had been used +to command; but underlying a rough exterior there was evidence +of a kindly heart. He was fearless, resourceful and decisive, +and triumphed as few men could have done over the difficulties +and dangers of a most critical position.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>See <i>Count Frontenac</i>, by W. D. Le Sueur (Toronto, 1906); <i>Count +Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV</i>, by Francis Parkman +(Boston, 1878); <i>Le Comte de Frontenac</i>, by Henri Lorin +(Paris, 1895); <i>Frontenac et ses amis</i>, by Ernest Myrand (Quebec, +1902).</p> +</div> +<div class="author">(A. G. D.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRONTINUS, SEXTUS JULIUS<a name="ar89" id="ar89"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> <span class="scs">A.D.</span> 40-103), Roman +soldier and author. In 70 he was city praetor, and five years +later was sent into Britain to succeed Petilius Cerealis as governor +of that island. He subdued the Silures, and held the other +native tribes in check till he was superseded by Agricola (78). +In 97 he was appointed superintendant of the aqueducts (<i>curator +aquarum</i>) at Rome, an office only conferred upon persons of very +high standing. He was also a member of the college of augurs. +His chief work is <i>De aquis urbis Romae</i>, in two books, containing +a history and description of the water-supply of Rome, including +the laws relating to its use and maintenance, and other matters +of importance in the history of architecture. Frontinus also +wrote a theoretical treatise on military science (<i>De re militari</i>) +which is lost. His <i>Strategematicon libri iii.</i> is a collection of +examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, +for the use of officers; a fourth book, the plan and style of which +is different from the rest (more stress is laid on the moral aspects +of war, <i>e.g.</i> discipline), is the work of another writer (best edition +by G. Gundermann, 1888). Extracts from a treatise on land-surveying +ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in Lachmann’s +<i>Gromatici veteres</i> (1848).</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>A valuable edition of the <i>De aquis</i> (text and translation) has been +published by C. Herschel (Boston, Mass., 1899). It contains numerous +illustrations; maps of the routes of the ancient aqueducts +and the city of Rome in the time of Frontinus; a photographic +reproduction of the only MS. (the Monte Cassino); several explanatory +chapters, and a concise bibliography, in which special +reference is made to P. d Tissot, <i>Étude sur la condition des agrimensores</i> +(1879). There is a complete edition of the works by +A. Dederich (1855), and an English translation of the <i>Strategematica</i> +by R. Scott (1816).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRONTISPIECE<a name="ar90" id="ar90"></a></span> (through the French, from Med. Lat. <i>frontispicium</i>, +a front view, <i>frons</i>, <i>frontis</i>, forehead or front, and <i>specere</i>, +to look at; the English spelling is a mistaken adaptation to +“piece”), an architectural term for the principal front of a +building, but more generally applied to a richly decorated +entrance doorway, if projecting slightly only in front of the +main wall, otherwise portal or porch would be a more correct +term. The word, however, is more used for a decorative design +or the representation of some subject connected with the substance +of a book and placed as the first illustrated page. A +design at the end of the chapter of a book is called a tail-piece.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FRONTO, MARCUS CORNELIUS<a name="ar91" id="ar91"></a></span> (<i>c.</i> <span class="scs">A.D.</span> 100-170), Roman +grammarian, rhetorician and advocate, was born of an Italian +family at Cirta in Numidia. He came to Rome in the reign of +Hadrian, and soon gained such renown as an advocate and +orator as to be reckoned inferior only to Cicero. He amassed a +large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the +famous gardens of Maecenas. Antoninus Pius, hearing of his +fame, appointed him tutor to his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius +and Lucius Verus. In 143 he was consul for two months, but +declined the proconsulship of Asia on the ground of ill-health. +His latter years were embittered by the loss of all his children +except one daughter. His talents as an orator and rhetorician +were greatly admired by his contemporaries, a number of whom +formed themselves into a school called after him Frontoniani, +whose avowed object it was to restore the ancient purity and +simplicity of the Latin language in place of the exaggerations of +the Greek sophistical school. However praiseworthy the intention +may have been, the list of authors specially recommended +does not speak well for Fronto’s literary taste. The authors of +the Augustan age are unduly depreciated, while Ennius, Plautus, +Laberius, Sallust are held up as models of imitation. Till 1815 +the only extant works ascribed (erroneously) to Fronto were two +grammatical treatises, <i>De nominum verborumque differentíis</i> +and <i>Exempla elocutionum</i> (the last being really by Arusianus +Messius). In that year, however, Angelo Mai discovered in +the Ambrosian library at Milan a palimpsest manuscript (and, +later, some additional sheets of it in the Vatican), on which had +been originally written some of Fronto’s letters to his royal +pupils and their replies. These palimpsests had originally +belonged to the famous convent of St Columba at Bobbio, and +had been written over by the monks with the acts of the first +council of Chalcedon. The letters, together with the other +fragments in the palimpsest, were published at Rome in 1823. +Their contents falls far short of the writer’s great reputation. +The letters consist of correspondence with Antoninus Pius, +Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in which the character of +Fronto’s pupils appears in a very favourable light, especially +in the affection they both seem to have retained for their old +master; and letters to friends, chiefly letters of recommendation. +The collection also contains treatises on eloquence, some historical +fragments, and literary trifles on such subjects as the praise of +smoke and dust, of negligence, and a dissertation on Arion. +“His style is a laborious mixture of archaisms, a motley cento, +with the aid of which he conceals the poverty of his knowledge +and ideas.” His chief merit consists in having preserved extracts +from ancient writers which would otherwise have been lost.</p> + +<div class="condensed"> +<p>The best edition of his works is by S. A. Naber (1867), with an +account of the palimpsest; see also G. Boissier, “Marc-Aurèle et +les lettres de F.,” in <i>Revue des deux mondes</i> (April 1868); R. Ellis, +in <i>Journal of Philology</i> (1868) and <i>Correspondence of Fronto and M. +Aurelius</i> (1904); and the full bibliography in the article by Brzoska +in the new edition of Pauly’s <i>Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</i>, +iv. pt. i. (1900).</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROSINONE<a name="ar92" id="ar92"></a></span> (anc. <i>Frusino</i>), a town of Italy in the province +of Rome, from which it is 53 m. E.S.E. by rail. Pop. (1901) +town, 9530; commune, 11,029. The place is picturesquely +situated on a hill of 955 ft. above sea-level, but contains no +buildings of interest. Of the ancient city walls a small fragment +alone is preserved, and no other traces of antiquity are visible, +not even of the amphitheatre which it once possessed, for which +a ticket (<i>tessera</i>) has been found (Th. Mommsen in <i>Ber. d. Sächsischen +Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaften</i>, 1849, 286). It was a +Volscian, not a Hernican, town; a part of its territory was taken +from it about 306-303 <span class="scs">B.C.</span> by the Romans and sold. The town +then became a <i>praefectura</i>, probably with the <i>civitas sine suffragio</i>, +and later a colony, but we hear nothing important of it. It was +situated just above the Via Latina.</p> +<div class="author">(T. As.)</div> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROSSARD, CHARLES AUGUSTE<a name="ar93" id="ar93"></a></span> (1807-1875), French +general, was born on the 26th of April 1807, and entered the +army from the École Polytechnique in 1827, being posted to the +engineers. He took part in the siege of Rome in 1849 and in +that of Sebastopol in 1855, after which he was promoted general +of brigade. Four years later as general of division, and chief +of engineers in the Italian campaign, he attracted the particular +notice of the emperor Napoleon III., who made him in 1867 chief +of his military household and governor to the prince imperial. +He was one of the superior military authorities who in this +period 1866-1870 foresaw and endeavoured to prepare for the +inevitable war with Germany, and at the outbreak of war he +was given by Napoleon the choice between a corps command +and the post of chief engineer at headquarters. He chose the +command of the II. corps. On the 6th of August 1870 he held +the position of Spicheren against the Germans until the arrival +of reinforcements for the latter, and the non-appearance of the +other French corps compelled him to retire. After this he took +part in the battles around Metz, and was involved with his corps +in the surrender of Bazaine’s army. General Frossard published +in 1872 a <i>Rapport sur les opérations du 2<span class="sp">e</span> corps</i>. He died at +Château-Villain (Haute-Marne) on the 25th of August 1875.</p> + + +<hr class="art" /> +<p><span class="bold">FROST, WILLIAM EDWARD<a name="ar94" id="ar94"></a></span> (1810-1877), English painter, was +born at Wandsworth, near London, in September 1810. About +<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>251</span> +1825, through William Etty, R.A., he was sent to a drawing +school in Bloomsbury, and after several years’ study there, and +in the sculpture rooms at the British Museum, Frost was in +1829 admitted as a student in the schools of the Royal Academy. +He won medals in all the schools, except the antique, in which +he was beaten by Maclise. During those years he maintained +himself by portrait-painting. He is said to have painted about +this time over 300 portraits. In 1839 he obtained the gold +medal of the Royal Academy for his picture of “Prometheus +bound by Force and Strength.” At the cartoon exhibition at +Westminster Hall in 1843 he was awarded a third-class prize +of £100 for his cartoon of “Una alarmed by Fauns and +Satyrs.” He exhibited at the Academy “Christ crowned with +Thorns” (1843), “Nymphs dancing” (1844), “Sabrina” (1845), +“Diana and Actaeon” (1846). In 1846 he was elected Associate +of the Royal Academy. His “Nymph disarming Cupid” was exhibited +in 1847; “Una and the Wood-Nymphs” of the same year +was bought by the queen. This was the time of Frost’s highest +popularity, which considerably declined after 1850. His later +pictures are simply repetitions of earlier motives. Among them +may be named “Euphrosyne” (1848), “Wood-Nymphs” +(1851), “Chastity” (1854), “Il Penseroso” (1855), “The Graces” +(1856), “Narcissus” (1857), “Zephyr with Aurora playing” +(1858), “The Graces and Loves” (1863), “Hylas and the +Nymphs” (1867). Frost was elected to full membership of the +Royal Academy in December 1871. This dignity, however, he +soon resigned. Frost had no high power of design, though some +of his smaller and apparently less important works are not without +grace and charm. Technically, his paintings are, in a sense, +very highly finished, but they are entirely without mastery. +He died on the 4th of June 1877.</p> + +<hr class="art" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th +Edition, Volume 11, Slice 2, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA *** + +***** This file should be named 37736-h.htm or 37736-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/3/37736/ + +Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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